Baghdad's New Normal

A 10th Mountain Division soldier in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood.

Now, he walks around the command center of Joint Security Station Casino in Ghazaliya, carrying himself with the bearing of a senior military man. "I walked into this base a few months ago and said that we'd had enough," he says. That's when the Americans began paying a salary to Raad and his men. "Who knows better about keeping out al Qaeda or the Mahdi Army than the people who live in the neighborhood?" he says. The Americans agree. "We draw the line at those detainees directly responsible for killing American soldiers, but if a guy was an Al Qaeda in Iraq lookout or took some stuff through a checkpoint, they are likely reconcilable," says Lt. Col. James Crider of the 1-4 Cavalry.

To many, the current peace is a combination of the Mahdi cease-fire and a recognition by once dominant Sunnis that their cause is lost. "Their only chance was to side with the Americans," says an American combat unit commander. "What they all say now about recognizing the brutality of Al Qaeda in Iraq is only their excuse to save face after the fact." And in Washington, Defense Intelligence Agency Chief Lt. Gen. Michael Maples warned Congress that the positive trend is "not yet irreversible" and that violence could flare up again.

For Samir Ali Hussein and his wife, straddling the sectarian divide is emblematic of their nation's difficult path ahead. The question now is, can the fragile peace hold for long enough for Iraqis to abandon their sectarian differences—or at least their desire to resolve them on the streets.