80,000 Angry Men. Is the US Surge collapsing?In an investigation carried out by GuardianFilms for Channel 4, we uncover how thousands of Iraqis employed at $10 a day by the US to take on al-Qaida are threatening to go on strike because they say they have been used by the 'Americans to do their dirty work' and haven't been paid.
For ten dollars a day, we've been paying members of the "Awakening Councils" to fight against the various AQI elements that have been conducting small scale operations in Diyala. These elements are now striking because they haven't been getting paid. Is this by accident or by design? There's never been a shortage of money to throw around before.
What these Awakening Councils were doing was pushing back against the attempts by AQI to intimidate people who weren't sufficiently "Islamic" or fundamentalist. So the Awakening Councils formed up, cleared out the AQI they could find, and are now angry that the US took credit for their work. They're also angry that the Shia government hasn't been allowing them to fill jobs.
And this is not just in Diyala--Awakening Councils all over Iraq are complaining about not being paid and are either withdrawing or striking.
Anyway, check out the video--take it with a grain of salt--and see what you think. It comes from the Guardian in Great Britain and there's no doubt that there is some bias to the piece. How much is anyone's guess.
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