Originally Posted by crockett

You clearly didn't pay much attention.. When Bush admin made their big "surge" in Iraq, part of its success was because they got the Sunnis to agree to put down their arms and become the official "police force" in their controlled areas..you may remember "Sons of Iraq" or the "great awaking"...

Those were the former insurgents which had been fighting Our troops. Bush admin as paying them to the tune of 18million a month of US tax dollar to not fight our troops.. It wasn't long before these guys took their new found power to their heads and turned it into a crime racket.. They started strong arming the people they were supposed to protect forcing them to pay protection money and killing those who wouldn't..

It all came to an end when both Obama was elected and stopped paying them not to fight and the new Iraqi govt refused to give them any position with-in the new govt. they then went back to fighting in both Iraq and Syria mostly joining ISIL.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sons_of_Iraq