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 — its tribes — 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.