TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Al Qaeda is recruiting Sons of Iraq:

A second Awakening Council leader, Sheikh Moustafa al-Jabouri, said disaffection among his ranks had reached breaking point as US combat forces increasingly depart, with most of his men not having been paid for up to three months and now facing a relentless recruitment drive by local al-Qaida members.

The “Sons of Iraq” are a Sunni militia recruited and paid by the U.S. military beginning in 2006 to protect their neighborhoods from Shia and Islamist attacks. This strategy was likely just as, if not more, responsible than the surge itself for the remarkable reversal in Iraq in 2006-07.

This is very worrying. If Al Qaeda successfully weakens the Sons of Iraq as the U.S. draws down its force, Iraq will very quickly go back to where it was in 2005.