The entry of US forces into Sadr City will be a key test of a new strategy to flood Baghdad with US and Iraq forces to break a cycle of sectarian violence that has engulfed it in chaos.
Sadr City's mayor Sheikh Rahim al-Daraji is close to Moqtada Sadr, but Anderson said the talks have gone well.
"To the surprise of all of us the mayor has been very cooperative, and there is good dialogue going on the future operations and security of Sadr City, which if you'd asked us a month ago we probably wouldn't have thought that," he said.
Daraji said in a telephone interview with AFP earlier that agreement had been reached with US and Iraqi commanders on technical details of the Baghdad security plan, and that a joint security station would begin operating March 13.
He said the fortified stations would be located at the entrance to Sadr City.
But Daraji said there would be no cooperation with a special US-Iraqi unit that has been conducting arrests.
Anderson said levels of violence have subsided but there are still Shiite militia attacks, primarily with armor piercing explosives that the US has charged are coming into the country from Iran.
Taking out the Shia death squads who target Sunni Arabs is important. Taking out the terrorists who are using Iranian weapons to kill American and Iraqi troops is important.
But protecting the Shias from Sunni Arab terrorists is just as important. If we are to maintain the momentum of Sunni Arabs shifting away from the terrorists and toward neutrality and pro-government attitudes, we must make sure the Shias don't suffer because we target the Shia militias that did provide protection in addition to their unwelcome death squad role. You can see this distinction in the mayor's cooperation with a defensive station and noncooperation on seeking out militias.
I hope that we are able to distinguish between death squads and Iranian pawns which we need to knock out, and the real militias that can be useful for local protection. The former must be crushed. The latter encouraged to cooperate with the Iraqi government and our forces. We should turn them into a Local Defense Force with nominal pay and government assistance and oversight. It is natural that Shias would wish to protect themselves from terrorist bombers, and we can use this motive as long as we constrain the militias to these protective missions.
If Shia Local Defense Forces are on the job defensively, it will reduce the opportunities for Shia thugs to blame America and the Iraqi government for security lapses that allow Sunni terrorists to kill Shias civilians.
We must hunt down Sunni Arab terrorists, too, of course, despite Sunni complaints. We are willing to let them surrender in safety, but until they do we must kill Sunni terrorists ruthlessly.
If we just target Shias and the Sunnis manage to kill more Shias, too, it will look like we are siding with the Sunnis and validate the craziest of conspiracy theories. (And thank goodness Saddam is dead, to keep rumors we will restore him to power from spreading.)
This is a delicate operation.
