U.S. Strategy on Sunnis Questioned
18 June Washington Post - U.S. Strategy on Sunnis Questioned by Joshua Partlow.
Quote:
Shiite and Kurdish officials expressed deep reservations on Sunday about the new U.S. military strategy of partnering with Sunni Arab groups to help defeat the militant organization al-Qaeda in Iraq.
"They are trusting terrorists," said Ali al-Adeeb, a prominent Shiite lawmaker who was among many to question the loyalty of the Sunni groups. "They are trusting people who have previously attacked American forces and innocent people. They are trusting people who are loyal to the regime of Saddam Hussein."
Throughout Iraq, a growing number of Sunni groups profess to have turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq because of its indiscriminate killing and repressive version of Islam. In some areas, these groups have provided information to Americans about al-Qaeda in Iraq members or deadly explosives used to target soldiers.
The collaboration has progressed furthest in the western province of Anbar, where U.S. military commanders enlisted the help of Sunni tribal leaders to funnel their kinsmen into the police force by the thousands. In other areas, Sunnis have not been fully incorporated into the security services and exist for the time being as local militias...
U.S. Widens Push to Use Armed Iraqi Residents
28 July Washington Post - U.S. Widens Push to Use Armed Iraqi Residents by Ann Scott Tyson.
Quote:
The U.S. military in Iraq is expanding its efforts to recruit and fund armed Sunni residents as local protection forces in order to improve security and promote reconciliation at the neighborhood level, according to senior U.S. commanders.
Within the past month, the U.S. military command in charge of day-to-day operations in Iraq ordered subordinate units to step up creation of the local forces, authorizing commanders to pay the fighters with U.S. emergency funds, reward payments and other monies.
The initiative, which extends to all Iraqis, represents at least a temporary departure from the established U.S. policy of building formally trained security forces under the control of the Iraqi government. It also provokes fears within the Shiite-led government that the new Sunni groups will use their arms against it, commanders said...
The loyalty issue is the principal reason it'll take
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Tom Odom
While I do not disagree with your point about the IP and the IA, this is a circular argument. Because of the loyalty issue we are creating counter forces to the others and you bet your bottom dollar that is weakening any pretense of a government built on democratic lines. Since building such a government was among the litany of reasons for this effort, proceeding down this tribal path merely demonstrates the futility of the democracy effort in the first place.
Yes Saddam bought off the tribes. His tribe the Tikritis enjoyeed pride of tribal place. He also ruled with a degree of cruelty needed to keep the tribes in line as well as the larger issues of sectarian and ethnic divisions. We will not do that and that always was the number one tool for persuasion in Saddam's tool box.
Ken I would say 2 if not more to even get the ideas across.
Best
Tom
time, there are others but that's the big one. I don't think we have much choice at this time due to our internal politics other than to buy off and play them against one another in the short term even while fully realizing that mitigates against our long term effort. They realize that as well. People aren't being stupid, just sensible.
Reality sometimes intrudes on what is right or desirable, in any war it often does -- as we all know but would like to forget... :wry:
Dominique--Weapons for the Citizenry
Colby's brainchild was People's Self Defence Force (PSDF), created in 1968.
As for the Montagnard Program (CIDG) Blair mentioned, you'd be hard put to find an historian who considers it a "loser." But it did manifest problems inherent to arming a resentful minority with separatist aspirations, especially when our CIDG strikers (1964??) decided to shoot at "our" (ARVN) Vietnamese. These Montagnards were affiliated with FULRO, a secessionist political movement. US leadership prevailed and got the situation under contol. The key to the success of the program was US leadership, although this did nothing to generate any tribal loyalty toward the national government, for sure. A question that might be worth asking is to what extent, if any, the subject Iraq program is slated to have US embeds, to better ensure even short term benefit.
As for PSDF, Colby locked horns with Robert Thompson over this one, not only because of the possibility that the pogram might abet centrifugal forces, but because of practical concerns that youthful thugs in PSDF might wind up robbing or raping their fellow citizens at gunpoint, or would turn their guns over to the VC. Colby prevailed and the PSDF came into being. In the event, to the surprise of many, while these abuses did occur, they were the exception. The program was cumpulsory for 16 and 17 year old males and for those (39-50) over draft age, and was to be implemented in all rural hamlets as well as urban neighborhoods. This militia, under the village chief, was to serve as a statement of political commitment by the populace, involving some personal risk, while the government was expected to be perceived as taking a risk as well, in trusting its citizenry with weapons. Using PSDF for the actual military defence of a location would constitute a considerable deviation from the intended purpose, yet there were more than a few occasions (usually reflecting the general state of security in the hamlet) in which PSDF found themselves the main defenders facing a ground assault by a superior enemy force, and in which they did fight, often sustaining grievous losses. In other locales, where local ties to the VC ran deeper, there were some instances of PSDF defections under pressure of an enemy offensive.
Personal experience is by definition anecdotal, and I am reminded of making the rounds very late in 1974, when detrerioration was in the air, in a village in Binh Chanh District, Gia Dinh Province, which bordered on the Capital Special Zone (i.e., Saigon-Cholon). The village chief's tale of woe included a recent battle (unreported) in which the RF had suffered 3 dozen KIA (hell of an eye opener, I mean listening to this). And the PSDF later came to the village office en masse and turned in their weapons to him. They weren't about to become traitors; they were simply scared s---less.
Cheers,
Mike.
A general uprising against al Qaeda
I think we are riding the crest of a general uprising among the tribes against al Qaeda and its allies. This post describes a recent action in Iraq:
Quote:
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 Sunday 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.
It was after the uprising that the Iraqi Army and the US came in to take tips from the angry residents that led to finding even more weapons caches. I think it can be argued that what we are doing with the tribes is an attempt to manage and channel this anger against our common enemy. This grass roots action is not just limited to Sunni tribes. Several Shia tribes have already done the same thing. While the US military is adapting to this new grass roots reality, it appears the Iraqi government and many in our congress are being left behind by events.