Petraeus: Iraqi Army is an integrated force Posted by Max Bergmann

Umm... can I call bull on that one... from all accounts the security groups in Iraq are not integrated. As Brian Katulis and Ian Moss wrote in the Philly Inquirer:

The U.S. initiative to work with these new Sunni militias has undermined the goal of reconciliation between Iraq's competing factions. Since the United States started working with these irregular forces, Iraq's central government has grown increasingly suspicious of this U.S. initiative. As a consequence, the Iraqi government has been a major impediment to integrating these members into Iraq's state security structures.

Comments

[David Tomlin]

From the beginning, the new Iraqi Army has been segregated at the battalion level, into Kurds, Arab Sunnis and Arab Shi'ites. (I recall reading of a single mixed battalion.) This segregation doesn't get nearly the attention it deserves, considering its political significance.