This is actually a good sign that the insurgents are having the opposite effect than what they want. While the media latches on to the calls for local militia (how is this different from local police and army populated by locals??), the core of this is Iraqis getting ready to fight back.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqis have begun barricading themselves in their homes and forming neighborhood militias in an effort to fend off relentless suicide attacks, residents in the capital said on Monday.

The measures come amid waning confidence in the Iraqi police and other security forces as they struggle to get on top of the two-year-old insurgency. In the latest attack, 98 people were killed by a suicide truck bomb south of Baghdad on Saturday.

A senior member of Iraq’s parliament on Sunday called for popular militias to be created as an extra line of defense against the militants, and criticized the government for failing to stop the bombs.
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In the Sadiya district in the south of the capital, residents have introduced a neighborhood watch program which involves men armed with pistols and AK-47s walking the streets from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. on alert for attackers.

They carry a piece of paper signed by the Iraqi army granting them permission to carry out the patrols.

In several other districts residents have blocked off streets with the trunks of chopped-down palm trees, or with large concrete flower pots, to try to stop suicide car bombers.

By taking back their streets they are taking back their country – one step at a time.