[antimedia] antimedia: The grand fitnah....

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Posted by antimedia:
The grand fitnah....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1158805810.shtml


   ....Messopotamian [1]discusses the chaos in Iraq, asserting that it's
   deliberately created by the forces in Iraq who oppose democracy. (He
   doesn't name them, but the Syrians, Iranians, dead-ender Baathists and
   Al Qaeda terrorists come readily to mind.)

     In the present complex befogged situation there are so many urgent
     questions to address that I find it hard where to start. What is
     clear, however is that the U.S. in particular and the West in
     general are facing serious challenges on several fronts, and these
     challenges are proving more serious than they expected and
     bargained for. This calls for reexamination and rethinking some
     previous ideas and notions and devising new approaches and methods
     to deal with situations that are quite different from previously
     conceived scenarios. The crucial questions concern the course of
     action that has to be taken now. What would be the best way to
     counterattack, conceding that the initiative seems to be in the
     otherâs hands? The answers to these questions require much careful
     consideration. To start with we must ask ourselves quite bluntly:
     is there a way out that will ensure a satisfactory outcome from our
     point of view? Well to cut a long story short, I would like to
     begin with a conclusion contrary to good writing practice. I
     believe that despite all the mistakes that were made there is still
     a way to succeed. This way is both technical on the one side and
     political and economic on the other. But this has to be the subject
     of future posts.
     As a footnote I would like to draw your attention to this . I have
     some inside information regarding the situation in the Anbar, where
     there is a real split amongst the Dulaim Tribes into anti-terrorist
     and pro-terrorist camps. That might be a subject for an interesting
     future post.

   What he wants to draw your attention to is [2]WaPo article that
   discusses some interesting developments in western Iraq.

     With a biker's bandanna tied under his helmet, the Special Forces
     team sergeant gunned a Humvee down a desert road in Iraq's volatile
     Anbar province. Skirting the restive town of Hit, the team of a
     dozen soldiers crossed the Euphrates River into an oasis of
     relative calm: the rural heartland of the powerful Albu Nimr tribe.
     Green Berets skilled in working closely with indigenous forces have
     enlisted one of the largest and most influential tribes in Iraq to
     launch a regional police force -- a rarity in this Sunni insurgent
     stronghold. Working deals and favors over endless cups of spiced
     tea, they built up their wasta -- or pull -- with the ancient
     tribe, which boasts more than 300,000 members. They then began
     empowering the tribe to safeguard its territory and help interdict
     desert routes for insurgents and weapons. The goal, they say, is to
     spread security outward to envelop urban trouble spots such as Hit.
     Col. Falah Salah Shimra heads the new police force in al-Furat, in
     Iraq's restive Anbar province. A U.S. Special Forces team persuaded
     an influential local tribe to supply recruits.
     Col. Falah Salah Shimra heads the new police force in al-Furat, in
     Iraq's restive Anbar province. A U.S. Special Forces team persuaded
     an influential local tribe to supply recruits.
     But the initial progress has been tempered by friction between the
     team of elite troops and the U.S. Army's battalion that oversees
     the region. At one point this year, the battalion's commander,
     uncomfortable with his lack of control over a team he saw as
     dangerously undisciplined, sought to expel it from his turf,
     officers on both sides acknowledged.

   That friction is telling.
   I'm sure many Americans who are ignorant of the military think it's
   one huge, well-oiled machine. While it may appear that way on the
   surface, underneath are all sorts of tensions and contradictory
   agendas.
   One of the places that tension rears its ugly head regularly is
   between the "regular" Army and the Special Forces folks. You see, West
   Point types think of the Special Forces folks as "rogue" units that
   they can't control.

     The conflict in the Anbar camp, while extreme, is not an isolated
     phenomenon in Iraq, U.S. officers say. It highlights two clashing
     approaches to the war: the heavy focus of many regular U.S.
     military units on sweeping combat operations; and the more
     fine-grained, patient work Special Forces teams put into building
     rapport with local leaders, security forces and the people -- work
     that experts consider vital in a counterinsurgency.
     "This war was fought with a conventional mind-set. The conventional
     units are bogged down in cities doing the same old thing," said the
     Special Forces team's 44-year-old sergeant, who like all the Green
     Berets interviewed was not allowed to be quoted by name for
     security reasons. "It's not about bulldozing Hit, driving through
     with a tank, with all the kids running away. . . . These
     insurgencies are defeated by personal relationships."
     The real battles, he said, are unfolding "in a sheik's house,
     squatting in the desert eating with my right hand and smoking
     Turkish cigarettes and trying to influence tribes to rise up
     against an insurgency."

   For all the results Green Berets regularly get, the stiff necks
   salivate for a chance to clean them up, straighten them out and make
   them fly right. And if screwing with their plans will irritate them a
   little, all the better.
   All of this works to make everyone's job harder and success more
   difficult to achieve. But if you ask the players involved, they will
   tell you, to a man, that they are trying to win the war.
   The best you can hope for is that the right guys have the clout to get
   things done.

References

   1. http://messopotamian.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_messopotamian_archive.html#115838422006042046
   2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/14/AR2006091401900.html