Capt. David N. Simms wanted the tribal sheiks to have no doubts - the $500,000 his unit spends every month to pay and equip local tribesmen to keep peace here will soon run out and they had better be ready when it's gone. Simms handed the sheiks 600 applications for a vocational school in nearby Baghdad. It's one option, he said, to prepare the men for life after he stops giving them salaries. The "Sons of Iraq" are the estimated 80,000 fighters - mostly Sunni tribesmen and former insurgents - recruited and paid by the U.S. military to help fight al-Qaida and maintain security in neighborhoods, including this Sunni farming community west of Baghdad. The program has been a remarkable success, helping reduce violence across the country by 80 percent since early 2007 at the cost of $216 million to date. Nearly two years into the program, however, the U.S. is gradually handing over responsibility for the Sons of Iraq to the Shiite-led government. By January, the military hopes to turn the entire program over to the Iraqis. ...
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