Iraq's tattered social fabric creates an acute problem for the 57th. The security apparatus is the most important instrument for sectarian domination, insuring that militia infiltration continues within the IPs. It's not a dynamic any military unit has the power to reverse. But by pushing the police to follow procedure--processing warrants, keeping track of detainees, constant patrolling--McNellis seeks to overwhelm sectarianism through the introduction of a professional esprit de corps. "In terms of the IPs, when the community truly believes in the IPs, that will spread, and the second- and third-order effects will come out, and people will say, 'Hey, the IPs are legit,'" he explains. "The insurgency can't be effective if a majority of the community buys into what we're trying to do here."

The company sees such a buy-in emerging as "the IPs' response time has improved and they're around a whole lot more," says Lieut. Jonathan Wellman. When the 57th canvasses the local population, "lots of them have great things to say." Sectarianism likely influences the response. The ABC poll found 87 percent confidence in the police among Shiites nationwide, but only 24 percent among Sunnis. In the context of Iraq's sectarian war, increased police proficiency might actually yield a reduction in legitimacy among the faction that feels victimized.

Ali's cousin is Colonel Haider, the commander of Khadimiya Police Station. Like Ali, Haider is a thick man with a black mustache and well-pomaded hair. When he sees Sherrill he gives the lieutenant a thorough update on where he's ordered stepped-up patrols in advance of a diplomatic conference. He gives high marks to his men's raiding skills and his ability to obtain search warrants. But Haider returns to the persistent problem. "Fifty percent of the recruits belong to the militias," he says. "They come here to collect information on the other sects." He goes further. "The MOI knows everything about who they are."

The MOI is the Ministry of Interior, arguably the most powerful department in the Iraqi bureaucracy. It has control of the police, and since 2005 it has been an instrument of Shiite political power. Under the previous minister, Bayan Jabr, thousands of Sunni officials were purged from the ministry, and in November 2005 US forces discovered torture chambers filled with Sunni victims and Shiite militiamen working for the MOI. Jabr's replacement, Jawad Bolani, is considered less radical, but according to Haider and other police commanders, militia infiltration of the IPs still occurs with official backing. In April the Post reported that the MOI, with Maliki's blessing, issues arrest warrants for commanders deemed too aggressive against Shiite militias. "Corruption is everywhere in the police. They don't have much experience to do their jobs. We don't know where they come from, but they're assigned here," Haider says. "We go station to station searching for officers, but most of [the men] we get don't know the area. Most just belong to the militias."

Opinions differ as to whether IP complaints about the MOI represent buck-passing. According to Capt. David Martin of the 92nd Military Police Battalion, most IPs end up assigned to the stations that recruited them. Once a prospective officer is vetted, he goes through academy training on the MOI grounds in eastern Baghdad. However, the MOI has the power to re-assign any officer to any station, raising the prospect among police commanders that the MOI orders militiamen into select stations. Haider gets nervous when I press him about MOI complicity with the militias. He picks up a can of Pepsi from his desk. "I can't say anything about the MOI, but here's an example. This is a soda. You know what it is, and what it consists of."

The problem runs deeper than the Interior Ministry. Every significant political organization in Iraq fields its own militia as an insurance policy against losing power. For the United States to insist on total militia demobilization would require a massive expansion of the war and cost it whatever Iraqi allies it still has--with no certainty of success. "My own personal view is that it's not realistic to expect in this country for militia groups to be eliminated altogether," says Col. Mike Galloucis, commander of the 89th Military Police Brigade, the parent unit of the 57th. "Militia groups are interwoven throughout the fabric of the country, including the government. But you can always go after bad behavior. You can establish the basic principle of what's acceptable and unacceptable: the notion that everyone accepts the law, no one is above the law, and if you violate it--and I don't care what your sect or your name is--you will be punished." Galloucis's approach led to the firing of several top police generals last fall after the colonel presented Bolani with "a thick packet" of information detailing their corruption.

The result is a trade-off. Police stations do not face US-pushed mass purges of corrupt officers, which would risk further destabilizing a maturing force. But as long as militiamen remain in the police, official cover will exist for kidnappings, murders and other human rights abuses, undermining the rule of law that Galloucis seeks to promote. Proof of specific police complicity in sectarian attacks can be hard to acquire, limiting US ability to get Iraqi commanders to take action. "You can buy a police uniform downtown," McNellis points out.

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