CJR: Meet the Sons of Iraq

The Kicker

Meet the Sons of Iraq

By Paul McLeary Wed 6 Feb 2008 09:14 AM

The CLCs—Concerned Local Citizens—are no more. Just a week ago, people couldn’t keep the acronym, which refers to the U.S. military’s effort to turn groups of former insurgents into paid allies, off their lips.

Everything revolved around the CLCs: using them to build on the improved security in much of Iraq; getting them to cooperate with the Iraqi police; getting their members on the police force; making sure they aren’t bringing heavy weapons to their checkpoint sites; synchronizing their goals to those of the Iraqi government, etc.

But now, no one is mentioning the CLCs. With the amazing speed of an acronym-happy military, the new, Iraqi-approved term is “Sons of Iraq.” SOI for short. Seems that “Concerned Local Citizen” didn’t translate into Arabic so well, and the Iraqis didn’t like it. So now, when reporters refer to armed groups of civilians manning checkpoints and doing the work that the Iraqi police and Army either will not or cannot do, know that they are the “Sons of Iraq.”

CJR

Comments

Soldier's Dad

Thu 7 Feb 2008 11:58 PM

Nations ae held together by mythologies..partly fact..partly myth.

Paul Revere was a messenger for the "Committee for Public Safety"

Not exactly a story people will be telling their children about two hundred years later is it?

Concerned Local Citizens is a program to engage what would otherwise be "Angry Young Men" in a manner that has a positive effect on their nation.

Not exactly the kind of group that one would imagine an 18 year old Angry Young Man would be interested in.

Joining "Sons of Iraq" sounds much cooler and conveys respect.

The challenge for every country with a median age of 18 and 30% unemployment is finding something productive to do with the "Angry Young Men".

In generations past...this generally meant holding a "World War".

Kath

Fri 8 Feb 2008 05:24 AM

"doing the work that the Iraqi police and Army either will not or cannot do"

Perhaps not the best choice of words. What exactly is it that the Army will not do?

AhmNee

Wed 13 Feb 2008 12:13 PM

Michael Yon had a writeup that spoke about the ground situation with the CLC/SOIs that I highly recommend.

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/national-polices-confrontation-with-son-of-iraq.htm

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