Jewcy Movable Sniper Spencer Ackerman — he of the skull-fucking Zarqawi TNR termination — has a valuable piece of foreign correspondence from Baghdad in this week's Nation, about the difficulty of training an Iraqi police force that is either infilitrated by Shia sectarians, or perceived by everyone to be. Of course, this being The Nation, Ackerman's relatively calm reporting, citing both successes and drawbacks attached to the surge, falls under a headline as dubious as "Training Iraq's Death Squads." So do read the whole megilla. Money quote:
However tense, the company has seen many good days since the surge began. In February Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki began his contribution to the surge, known as Fardh al-Qanoon, or "Enforcing the Law." It has made Baghdad a city of endless checkpoints and roadblocks manned by Iraqi police and army units. To reduce the danger from car bombs, the security forces have made driving through the city as difficult as possible. In Khadimiya, there are more checkpoints than there are heavy concrete barriers, leading Iraqi police to limit mobility on the streets with air conditioners and engine blocks.
Baghdadis are so desperate for security that many seem willing to endure higher US visibility as its price–within limits. Around ten of Baghdad's more violent neighborhoods, US troops are constructing massive concrete walls along sectarian fault lines, suggesting to many Iraqis that the United States and its proxies are seeking to redraw the city's map for their own benefit. After I left, Adhimiya, the last Sunni bastion east of the Tigris, was home to a massive protest that, ironically, united Sunnis and Shiites against America's so-called "gated communities."