25,000 Insurgents Ally With U.S.
By Jim Michaels, USA TODAY
The U.S. strategy to build alliances with mostly Sunni tribal and local leaders has prompted 25,000 of their followers to turn away from the insurgency and at least nominally align with Iraq’s Shiite-led government in the fight against al-Qaeda.
The number, from the U.S. command in Iraq, represents the first stab at measuring the effectiveness of the tribal strategy. The trend is likely … to be a critical part of a report due in September to Congress and the White House by the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus.
“I think it is the most significant thing that’s happened in the past couple years,” said Marine Maj. Gen. Mastin Robeson, deputy chief of staff for strategy and plans for Multi-National Force-Iraq. “They actually have come to us saying, ‘We want to join you, we want to fight al-Qaeda.’ ”
Iraq’s Shiite-dominated central government has taken almost no legislative action to resolve differences with minority Sunnis and broaden support for the government. The U.S. military’s tribal strategy is an effort to build links with groups, many of them armed, at the local level and tap into their hostility toward al-Qaeda.
The strategy was initially aimed at Sunnis, which have made up the bulk of the insurgency against U.S. troops and the Iraqi government. Its goal was to separate former members of Saddam Hussein’s ruling Baath party and other “nationalist” insurgents from more extremist al-Qaeda militants who want to impose a strict form of Islamic law and form a government stretching across all the Muslim world.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Iraq | Shiite | US military | Sunni | Sunni | Iraqi government | Gen. David Petraeus | Field Artillery | Andrew Krepinevich
More recently, the U.S. strategy has broadened to include local Shiite leaders opposing extremist militias. Petraeus and other top commanders have cited alliances with tribal and other local leaders as an important sign of progress. “What we’re starting to realize more and more is that reconciliation at the bottom may be the more important element in the short term,” Petraeus said recently.
Alliances with local fighters are not among the 18 benchmarks established by Congress to measure the effectiveness of a troop increase that bumped the U.S. military presence in Iraq from about 130,000 to 160,000 this year.
Andrew Krepinevich, a counterinsurgency expert at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said the tribal and local alliances are a good idea — but one with risks.
Tribal loyalty could be fleeting. Many tribes don’t share democratic values or have much sympathy for Iraq’s central government. “This is an alliance of convenience,” Krepinevich said. “It’s not necessarily an alliance of convictions.”
Tribes are groups of people who are loosely linked through blood ties. In parts of Iraq, particularly rural Sunni areas, tribal leaders are powerful figures. Some Iraqis place tribal ties above national identity.
Some tribes turned on al-Qaeda and worked with U.S. forces last year in Anbar province, west of the capital.
The U.S. military, working with the Iraqi government, has tried to spread the movement throughout Iraq.
“We aren’t arming them,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates told CNN Sunday. “There is no need to do that. Everybody in Iraq has several weapons, it looks like. We are providing them with some training and some money.”
Tribe members and others who agree to support Iraq’s government have to sign a pledge form and consent to biometric scans of their fingerprints and retinas so their data can be kept on file. They are also vetted by the Iraqi government.
About 25,000 have signed the pledge, most in recent months. “It’s happening so quickly, the numbers are never up to date,” Robeson said.
Iraq’s government expressed early concerns about the plan, fearing it could boost the power of mostly Sunni tribes outside government control.
“There are questions in the minds of much of the federal leadership,” Robeson said. “They’ve had to take some time to get their arms around it.”
The Iraqi government has agreed to go along with the alliances on the condition that local fighters are eventually brought into Iraq’s security forces.
Iraq’s army, police and other security forces consist of 346,500 trained personnel, according to the Pentagon.
Robeson said U.S. officials have been careful to pursue the strategy in a way that doesn’t threaten Iraq’s government.
U.S. officers say the movement may be a turning point in efforts to defeat the insurgency. The U.S. military’s new counterinsurgency manual emphasizes the importance of depriving insurgents of public support.
“This is a tectonic shift in what’s happening in Iraq,” said Army Col. Sean MacFarland. As a brigade commander in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, MacFarland was responsible for building the first tribal alliances last year.
Be respectful of others and their opinions. Inflammatory remarks and inane leftist drivel will be deleted. It ain’t about free speech, remember you’re in a private domain. My website, my prerogative.
If you can't handle using your real email address, don't bother posting a comment.
Public opinion is usually 6 months behind events on the ground. Soon we’ll see public opinion of the handling of the war tick up slowly, because Americans like to associate with winning and not losing.
August 6th, 2007 at 7:15 amfollow with what is going on with the Diyala region
http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13168&Itemid=128
pretty positive article considering it came from USA Today
The Iraqis may well have learned that they can control their destiny, and if this learning reaches to the individual citizenship they may well become an example of democracy in the Arab world.
August 6th, 2007 at 7:30 amThe Iraqis seemed to have learned something from the Americans, and that is if you show the enemy you are united, in spirit and in actions, that together you can take back your country. Al-Queda never intended on fighting for the Iraqis against the Americans, it was a total lie! Now we know that Iran is solidly behind the insurgents’ recent activities to try to curtail the surge that appears now to be working great. Wish the media would report it more though.
Semper Fi Marines, keep taking the battle to the bastards and sent them to Allah faster than they want to.
August 6th, 2007 at 7:33 amSupport for the war has already gone up. The public needs to be educated. If they were, there’d be a whole lot less KosKids, Bush would be right and the defeatocrats would look more like the deceitful slimeballs that they really are.
The word is leaking out slowly but surely. The Dufouscrats will try all they can to continue to obfuscate the message.
August 6th, 2007 at 7:47 amIn the end, come September, they’re going to loose the argument.
Another proof that the lying ass Peloski-ites are losing the argument:
August 6th, 2007 at 8:01 amhttp://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2007/08/06/perceptions_of_iraq_war_are_starting_to_shift
Here’s a quote from a member of the YAF. Shows you that at least on college campuses Iraq is not page one news. If it is written about it is only a blurb.
“Meanwhile, back on campus, the war in Iraq is not preoccupying thought. Most students — conservative or liberal — don’t serve in the military and are not personally affected by U.S. casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,292194,00.html
August 6th, 2007 at 8:54 amThe sad and sorry truth is success stories like this will be down played by the Main Stream Media since it can be construed as a success by the current administration.
August 6th, 2007 at 9:01 am“Linked through blood ties”, five thousand years of in-breeding.
August 6th, 2007 at 10:42 amForgot to mention, why’s the American out front and the Iraqi’s hiding around the corner? Just askin’.
August 6th, 2007 at 11:39 amHi,
I have been “firing away” a bit in the comment section of this article. (streamline)
Peace,
Dan2
______
August 6th, 2007 at 12:12 pmhttp://iraqsinconvenienttruth.com/
“Americans like to associate with winning and not losing.”
QFT. Just blowin in the wind.
August 6th, 2007 at 12:46 pmHi,
This was my post over 1.5 hours ago…I hope I put a “little reality” into the lives of the USA Today readers…
No replys after this post…LOL
Here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-08-05-tribes_N.htm
_____
Quote:
For those of you who want to “really see” whats going on in Iraq…and what “al qaeda” is really like and what they have done…then this is the only reason you should need to see WHY we need to finish this war.
***WARNING: A small part of this “photo essay” is graphic and should not be view by anyone under a certain age (use some commen sense)***
Just “copy and paste” this link into your web browser.
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/bless-the-beasts-and-children.htm
End Quote
_____
Peace!
August 6th, 2007 at 2:10 pmDan
American Forces Press Service
BAGHDAD, Aug. 6, 2007 – Fed-up with violent and indiscriminate terror tactics, a group of more than 80 residents of the Adhamiyah district, on the east side of the Iraqi capital, banded together yesterday to oust suspected terrorists from a local mosque.
The uprising led to a string of events over the next 12 hours that ultimately resulted in the arrest of 44 suspected terrorists and the capture of three weapons caches.
The initial takeover of the Abu Hanifa Mosque occurred at about 2 p.m., apparently triggered by news that terrorists had murdered two relatives of a prominent local sheik. As the news spread, angry residents joined the sheik to storm the mosque, long believed to be a sanctuary for terrorists operating in the area, and ousted the suspected terrorists inside from the building.
Full story:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=46959
_____
August 6th, 2007 at 2:55 pmPeace,
dan
Great story Pat, but get that light weight Obama ad to the right side of the page off your site! Can’t wait for YA.
August 6th, 2007 at 8:18 pmI’m sure many more will join… and that’s less al-Qaeda!
August 6th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
- good news keeps coming. Thats amazing Petraeus has turned the number of Sunnis he has to fight on our side. Although there are good points brought up about weather this will last in the long run. I’d hope to think that if al-Qaeda was defeated with the help of Sunnis that would go a long way towards reconciliation with the Shiite. And the definition of al-Qaeda being defeated I think means the large reduction of Sunnis providing them anymore support. God damn Syria will never help seal their borders - so there will always be some damn terrorist bent on killing getting through. After a.q. - then it’s time to go after the militias. But take it one step at a time - get some momentum and start turning the tide of this.
August 6th, 2007 at 8:50 pmvery good news from the sandbox..if we time everything just right, and when we start withdrawing some troops, then we can all be happy..except the democrats who deserve to eat a shit sandwich..then the firing squad
August 7th, 2007 at 5:29 am