Mohammed Hafez of the Naval Postgraduate School takes a look at how Al Qaeda in Iraq could mount a comeback. The short answer: if the U.S. doesn’t broker a formidable deal between the Sons of Iraq — the 100,000 mostly Sunni ex-insurgentscurrently paid by the U.S. to be a pro-U.S. militia — and the Shiite-controlled Iraqi government, which hates them. "That could be a ga mechanger," Hafez says. Already AQI is putting out the line that the U.S. will betray the Sons of Iraq. Unless the U.S. figures out how to get the Shiites to embrace them — easier said than done, obviously — it’ll playright into AQI’s hands. Once again, sectarianism cuts against the U.S.’s counterterrorism goals.