[antimedia] antimedia: This report should be broadcast....

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Posted by antimedia:
This report should be broadcast....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1179192082.shtml


   ....on [1]every TV channel in America.

     In the aftermath of America's recent troop surge in Iraq, tribal
     leaders throughout this country are turning on Al Qaeda, and
     American military commanders are trying to exploit the new
     development by bringing tribe members into the Iraqi Security
     Forces.
     For those officers overseeing the new tribal diplomacy, signs are
     emerging that Iraq's deepest social networks â its tribes â are
     withdrawing their tacit acceptance of Al Qaeda and are becoming
     more willing to cooperate with American authorities to combat the
     terror network.

   Sunnis everywhere are deciding that Al Qaeda has worn out its welcome.

     Sheikh Hussein, as well as other sheikhs interviewed for this
     piece, said the turning point for the tribes was in September when
     Al Qaeda in Iraq declared the formation of the Islamic State of
     Iraq, a shadow state that in pockets of the country has established
     Islamic sharia courts and tried to provide some social services.
     The declaration was a direct challenge to the centuries-old tribal
     system that has prevailed in most of Iraq. As a result, the
     terrorists once seen as allies against the American invaders have
     also come to be seen as invaders.

   They don't see America as their saviors -- just as their best hope for
   success.

     Despite the rising antipathy toward Al Qaeda, the tribal sheikhs in
     the Sunni regions in particular are very clear that their new
     alliance with the Americans is merely a tactical one. Sheikh
     Hussein summed it up: "We would like America, a friend, to rebuild
     the country. This is what we want, what the tribes want. But to
     stay here as a military force indefinitely is unacceptable." For
     Sheikh Hussein, however, the prospect of a speedy exit is also
     unacceptable. At a luncheon at a home of one of his cousins, he
     asked this reporter, "Please, tell the Democrats for now to stop
     pressuring Bush."
     Sheikh Hussein, a Shiite in a tribe that also contains Sunnis, has
     been one of the most valued assets for Lieutenant Colonel Kurt
     Pinkerton, who commands the 2nd Battalion of the 5th Cavalry
     Regiment in Abu Ghraib. In April, the sheikh informed Colonel
     Pinkerton that a faction of the powerful Sunni Zobai tribe was
     planning an assault on their fellow tribesmen and Al Qaeda and
     requested that his soldiers refrain from interfering. Nonetheless,
     one day after the fighting began, a message was relayed to the
     colonel asking for backup. The platoon that the colonel dispatched
     set up shop in a nearby house and defeated a small band of fighters
     on April 7. It was the first time a faction of the Zobai tribe had
     fought in alliance with, though not alongside, American forces.
     The significance of the fact that a portion of the Zobai tribe was
     willing to receive American help cannot be underestimated. The
     tribe has a century-long tradition of fighting invaders due to the
     fame of Sheikh Dhari, who was credited with killing a British
     colonel, Gerald Leachman, in August 1920. A scion of Sheikh Dhari,
     Harith al-Dhari, is the leading voice in the Association of Muslim
     Scholars, which has sanctioned attacks against Americans.
     A Zobai leader, who asked to be anonymous in part because his
     compound has withstood assaults from rival sheikhs affiliated with
     Al Qaeda, said he estimates that "98% of the people are now against
     Al Qaeda. The people who followed them and became partisans of Al
     Qaeda, they are either naïve, they were seduced, or coerced, or
     deceived, and some were looking out for their own political
     interests. I can put a lot of people in the third class. We call
     them lewd gangsters," he said.

   Meanwhile the Democrats are working overtime trying to find a way to
   get us out of Iraq. Not only is that insane, it's foolhardy in the
   face of what's happening now in Iraq.

     At a meeting with the general of the police district that oversees
     Abu Ghraib, the American colonel boasted that he could muster
     10,000 volunteers from the once-hostile tribes to join the national
     police and army. To date, he has a list of 1,300 volunteers whom he
     is trying to get the Iraqi security forces to accept. His initial
     outreach was more modest, based on an old Iraqi initiative, Night
     Watchman, whereby the police designated senior men in the village
     and gave them whistles to raise the alarm against thieves.
     "That worked well. They started expanding out and putting people to
     observe the enemy's movements. They would call us with the
     information, tell us about IEDs [improvised explosive devices]. We
     would get the IEDs and get the information where the people who
     placed them went, and then we would detain them."
     Formalizing this process has proved trickier. The Iraqi Security
     Forces have been wary of inviting members of tribes once seen as
     the enemy. Indeed, one of Colonel Pinkerton's liaisons on the
     tribal outreach â who asked not to be named â has to travel with
     the military in Abu Ghraib because he is a terrorist target. A
     police general in Abu Ghraib in one meeting said terrorists had
     kidnapped his own son, an event the colonel says he helped to
     resolve.

   Do the Democrats really want to be known as the party that abandoned
   Iraq just as the country was turning against Al Qaeda? (Hat tip to
   [2]The Discerning Texan.)
   Tags: [3]Iraq [4]Al Qaeda [5]Sunnis [6]surge

References

   1. http://www.nysun.com/article/54368?page_no=1
   2. http://discerningtexan.blogspot.com/2007/05/sunni-tribal-leaders-in-iraq-turning-on.html
   3. http://technorati.com/tag/Iraq
   4. http://technorati.com/tag/Al%20Qaeda
   5. http://technorati.com/tag/Sunnis
   6. http://technorati.com/tag/surge