“Iraqi and American soldiers have completely disarmed a rebellious Awakening Council that staged a brief uprising after its leader was arrested in a Baghdad neighborhood, and they are not going to allow it to re-form, both Iraqi and United States officials confirmed Monday. Maj. Gen. David Perkins, the chief spokesman and a top aide to Gen. Ray Odierno, the commanding United States general in Iraq, said the Awakening fighters in the Fadhil section of the capital would be offered an opportunity to join the Iraqi security forces instead. The Sunni neighborhood, a hotbed of insurgent activity before the Awakening movement started, remained under a total curfew and military blockade on Monday, three days after American and Iraqi forces arrested Adil al-Mashhadani, the neighborhood’s powerful Awakening leader, on criminal and terrorism charges. It is the first time an Awakening Council — many made up of former Sunni insurgents who switched sides for pay — has been forcibly disbanded in the capital,” writes Rod Nordland in today’s Times.
A month ago I went out with American troops in Dyala province to look for jobs for members of the awakening councils.
If you want people to switch sides for pay you have to keep paying.
This is of course also the rationale behind most marriages and relationships: keep paying.
The other rationale is habituation.