The Merged Blue Line

No, this is not a promo for the Iraqi version of COPS.

Contradicting the Administration’s contention that Ira’si security efforts are becoming more effective, the NYT reports that the U.S. military will soon assume supervision of the Iraqi police.

In what can best described as propaganda, the shots above show British forces working alongside Iraqi police in Basra.  (Although these images are distributed by AP, the captions at YahooNews indicate that they were “made available” by the British Ministry of Defence.)

The question is, what kind of substantive coordination could these photos represent, however, given that the police in Basra are known to be thoroughly controlled by Shiite militia groups?

(Edited: 1/4/06)



(images: AP/British MInistry of Defence. January 1, 2006.  Basra, Iraq.  Via YahooNews.)