Looks like it may be spreading:
More than 10 Iraqi tribes in the Baghdad area have reached agreements with U.S. and Iraqi forces for the first time to oppose al-Qaeda, raising the U.S. military’s hopes that a trend started in western Iraq is spreading here.
Some of the groups, which have members who fought alongside al-Qaeda in the past, have been providing useful intelligence to U.S. forces about their former allies, according to the U.S. military.
“They know where they live and who they are,” said Lt. Col. Rick Welch, a staff officer who works with tribes in the capital area. “They know how they operate.” Some tribes are also taking up arms against al-Qaeda allies.
Only ten tribes out of a hundred, and bombs are still going off in the Iraqi capital. Still, ten is better than none. Ten is a start.
Who would have thought that it just might work.
Gee, isn’t it interesting after the fervent denials in one of our host’s previous post that this couldn’t possibly happen.
Time can make a world of difference, along with the perserverance of our troops.
Let’s hope it spreads like a contagion.
I expect y’all to shoot the messenger, but I still love you anyway. There is another way to view this viral success:
“A few questions for General Petraeus, Lt. Col. David Kilcullen, and others who are applying the ?
I expect y’all to shoot the messenger, but I still love you anyway. There is another way to view this viral success:
“A few questions for General Petraeus, Lt. Col. David Kilcullen, and others who are applying the “lessons” derived from “the laws of counterinsurgency” and think it may take “at least a decade” for things to work in Iraq. First, how do you see the “mission” that you are attempting to fulfill, one gathers, by granting every item on the wish-list of Sunni sheikhs? These wishes are for still more billions in “reconstruction” projects, and for still more walking-around money to win friends and influence Sunnis, and especially, for still more of that impressive American weaponry that all of the Iraqis, Arabs and Kurds, Sunni and Shi’a, are dying to get their hands on. And why is it, if the “enemy” is Al Qaeda, because it has done such damage to both Sunnis and to Shi’a, do those Sunnis and those Shi’a need to be bribed with money and more weapons, to get them to fight those who are their mortal enemies? Al Qaeda in Iraq consists of a few thousand admittedly most-determined men, but the Sunnis of Anbar have hundreds of thousands of potential fighters. And the Shi’a, with eighteen million of Iraq’s 27 million, could supply several million fighters if they wished, both trained in uniform, and irregulars fighting for their lives. Why must they be bribed, cajoled, hectored, inveigled, if they are such enemies of Al Qaeda, and such potential friends of the Americans? Why are they so hard to get to fight, and so needy when it comes to money and advanced weaponry that the Iraqis never needed before? Why?”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/017013.php#more
Because that’s the way the world works?
We don’t have to like these people Zane, and we shouldn’t expect them to like us all that much. But we do have to work with them, and leave in place something that won’t instantly go to hell the moment we take our eyes off of it.
Lex, if Iraq was the sum and total of our war, I would agree with you. But it’s not, it’s just one battlefield. Why are we responsible for keeping Iraq from going to Hell, and so what if it does? As the author notes, AQI is small in number, and easily recognizable as outsiders in the tribal world of Iraq. They are outnumbered and outgunned thousands to one by Sunnis alone, never mind the Shi’a or Kurds. They could deal with their AQI infestation quite well on their own, without any help from us–so why don’t they? We are being used now as proxies in an ancient family conflict by the Sunnis against the Shi’a. And if it’s so important to the rest of the world that Iraq be stable, why does no one outside of our English-speaking allies care to actually help out? But it is in Iran’s interest that we be tied down, and in China’s interest, and in Jordan and KSA’s and Qatar’s interest that we be trapped in the region to be a buffer against Iran. All the more reason, then, to free ourselves.
Understand, since our elected government has chosen to give LTG Petraeus the last chance to set Iraq on an even keel (and he will be the last general to be given the chance, domestic politics will out here), and this is the course he has chosen, God willing, I’d rather he was right and I was wrong, and it all came together somehow. For the sake of our nation and the tens of thousands in the line of fire, I would truly rather be wrong. But part of my trade is having my toes put in the fire and telling the boss what he needs to hear, not what he wants to hear. It’s hard to hear that what looks like success is in fact further error, and that is, in my assessment, what we are facing. Regrets.