Yes. Let's hope the democratic Iraqis got assurances on these matters from Maliki before accepting his prime ministership.

Turn in all your weapons to the government; they're here to help you.

The state needs to have a monopoly on organized violence.

Lou, I understand your concern, yet these groups in Iraq are not actual militias, but private sectarian paramilitaries.

Sistani is really the only impressive figure in all of this. Assuming he is not some bizarre Khomeini figure in disguise (and I have not seen evidence as such), the Iraqi people are blessed to have him. He's old. I hope he lives long enough to see our troops leave and Iraq have a stable government.

And, of course, our government has had a monopoly on violence for centuries.

They don't have to get rid of the guns, just the unregulated militias.

Just the notion that you can use a gun at will.

No, just the notion that you can use your gun in concert with others in the absence of state authorization.

Lone gunmen are no threat to a gov.

The militias have, in most cases, divided loyalties. They were created by Iran from groups of exiled Iraqis, funded by Iran, trained by Iran, and lived in Iran for more than twenty years until Saddam's regime fell. They are, in many ways, as much Iranian as Iraqi. And they have been extensively infiltrated by Revolutionary Guards with fake Iraqi IDs.

Thus, dismantling the militias is essential to assuring that Iraq becomes a genuinely independent country, not an Iranian satellite state the way Syria and Lebanon have become.

Hardly. They've accepted Iranian help as the Contras accepted ours, but their fight is on behalf of Shi'ite Arabs against Sunni Arabs for the future of whatever's left of Iraq after the Kurds go off on their own.

Guns, buns. But the explosives, they have to give them up. Who would defend such a right here in the US? Not even Lou.

No rockets, no mortars, no C-4, no detonators, no cord, no grenades. If they want to restrict people to handguns and shotguns, that's probably OK, too. After all, what are the authorities going to think if hundreds of loud young men bearing AKs start marching around?

Do the Iraqis really want to be seen in the same light as Hamas and Islamic Jihad? Probably not.

But the explosives, they have to give them up.

So how you gonna get them back on the farm once they've given up their diesel and fertilizer, and copper tubing? And cell phones, and garage-door openers.

Joe:

Cut off their fingers if they flunk a detection test?

The US Army won't do that, but Iyad Allawi would. Maybe the Maliki fellow will, too.