Not sure that I agree with you, dianavan. If you have a minority (Sunnis) that harbours a number of insurgents (presumably a minority themselves within the Sunnis), it is common sense to recruit within their brethren for the fight against the insurgents.

In the UK, partly to combat black-on-black crime (and partly to ingratiate themselves with the black and Asian communities), the police went on a campaign to recruit more non-Caucasian officers. Their campaign didn't bring as many of the "right" recruits as they hoped, but nobody thought that it was a bad idea to try.

It's not that different from recruiting ex-hackers as IT computer security experts. They know best how to combat the specific crime they are targetted against.

Also it's all part of the "hearts and minds" effort. And no matter what we think of GWB and the Iraq war, surely we all want the situation in Iraq to improve, for the sake of the Iraqis themselves first of all.

I wouldn't condemn anyone to hell - that's God's job and he has had more practice at it than any of us. I'd happily slap GWB given a chance; but that doesn't mean that every thing he does is bad. We should beware of the baby-bathwater syndrome.

I wish GWB wasn't in the post he occupies. But while he is there, I would be a traitor to my conscience if I didn't applaud his correct moves, even as I deplore the incorrect ones.