Perspective: Iraqis not ready to lay down arms

BAGHDAD — Hours after President Bush announced his latest plan to shore up Iraq's beleaguered government, some Iraqis were hoarding weapons, prepared to fight additional U.S. troops alongside the militias they say protect them.

Among the militiamen in the capital on Thursday was a man who asked to be identified as Abu Karrar. Affiliated with the Al Mahdi militia loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr, Abu Karrar refuses to lay down his weapons until militia leaders give the word.

"This can be done only when there will be some guarantees, and only when security has improved," he said.

Abu Zahraa, 35, a Shiite who works as a building foreman in Baghdad, said he was not ready to trust the government, divided as it was into powerful Sunni Arab and Shiite factions.

"If the situation would remain like this, then we will never give up our weapons, because we are skeptical that there is a … side that is able to provide us with security," he said.

Read the rest at the LA Times