One of the major issues in this Sunni-dominated region is the Iraqi Army’s 3rd Battalion, 6th Division, known as the Muthana brigade, and stories that they’re planning a push into the area from camp Constitution. Even though the unit is headed by a Sunni, General Nasser, it’s comprised mostly of Shia foot soldiers. Muthana had previously operated in the area, and reportedly treated the local population brutally, so much so that the local Sunni sheiks threaten to move if the unit comes back.

Sheik Hussein says that the Sunnis prefer the Americans to the return of Muthana, and argues that general Nasser doesn’t think that the SOIs are legitimate, making him worry that they will attack the checkpoints. The SOI “brought security here,” Hussein says, “but we are being misjudged by the IA.” Diaz tries to assure him that when the brigade comes back, whenever that may be, they’ll only patrol jointly with American forces, and for the time being won’t be able to act on their own. Sheik Hussein isn’t very satisfied with this answer, but it’s the only one he’s going to get. Like it or not, the Iraqi Army at some point is going to take over from the American military as the dominant security force in the region, and the SOI—or at least SOI other than the 20 percent of them incorporated into the Army or police—will have to find other employment. As Captain Helberg would tell me later:

This is all about a power play. There are some in the SOI movement who believe that they’ll be responsible for security in the area, and that’s absolutely not the case. I don’t know when the Muthana brigade is gonna come in here. It could be tomorrow, it could be six months from now—it could be six years from now—but these guys need to start preparing themselves for it because at some point, Iraqi security forces are going to take over responsibility for security in this area, and my hope is that we get the police up and running at some point and the MOD [Ministry of Defense] and MOI [Ministry of the Interior] sit down and look at it and say, ‘We don’t need to send Muthana brigade in there,’ but I don’t know if that’s gonna happen at this point.”

Over the next several days, I watched as he tried to add more bricks to the wall.

This is Part Four in an ongoing series.

Part One, “Up Close With the Counterinsurgency,” is here.

Part Two, “Meet the Sons of Iraq,”is here.

Part Three, “Fact From Fiction,” is here.

Part Four, “Dances With Strongmenm,” is here.

Part Five, “The Rejected,” is here.

Part Six, “Men With Guns,” is here.

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