Paramilitaries: the key to security?
Apparently helping to pave the way for the eventual Iraq civil war, Paul Bremer and the Iraqi Governing Council plan to set up a paramilitary force with militias from five of the major factions in Iraq. According to Juan Cole:

Ghazi al-Yawar, a Sunni member of the IGC, told the LA Times that this was a very bad idea, and that the militias should be disbanded rather than being legitimized.

Al-Yawar is right, of course. This step is ominous, moreover, because this genderamerie will report to the Interior Ministry, which is dominated by the appointees of ex-Baathist Iyad al-Alawi.