Iraqi tribes and the "neighbors"
A colleague of mine is involved in a research project on the role of Iraqi tribes, with a particular focus on the role (or not) of neighboring countries. Among the issues of interest are:
- To what extent do neighboring states seek to influence Iraqi politics through particular connections to the tribes?
- How is such influence exerted, and to what ends?
- How effective is this, and how has influence changed over time?
- Some tribal leaders relocated to Jordan (etc) for reasons of safety after 2003... how did this affect their influence?
Does anyone on SWC have any thoughts of this—especially if you have boots-on-the-ground experience with tribal engagement? He is especially interested in Jordan (and western Iraq), but information on the role of Syria, Iran, and Saudi Arabia would doubtless would be welcomed.
Also, "as far as I know the neighbors were largely irrelevant in my AOR" is just as important as any other response, so if that was your experience please say so!
Saw Sam Soltzoff's pitch yesterday
I was able to watch Sam pitch his first class yesterday on his theory. 1. Sam is amazingly intelligent. He is a speaker, writer, and reader of Arabic. 2. His presentation is very animated – he’s excited about this topic. 3. He is very well read on his sources having personally translated many of them.
Yeah – he had a shameless plug for his book and I’ll buy a copy if just to read what he translated since my Arabic reading isn’t so good. If you can get over the plug (and you really should), as davidbfpo above pointed out, he brings a level of specialism that is not found elsewhere that I know of.
His basic point – and Sam if I got this wrong, then tell me – is that there are tribes in Iraq (the Noble Tribes) that drive the society (drive may not be the right word, so I’ll go “Where the Noble Tribes go, so goes the country.)
As far as what Tom Odom says above, the “necessary” of what Sam does can be explained in the question, “What motivates Iraqi X to do what he is doing?” I served as a MiTT Chief for a year in addition to commanding a rifle company in Baghdad. The full tribe name of the Iraqis that I worked with can explain some of what they did (in retrospect since I was not aware of the importance of sub-tribe/clan until yesterday). It’s deeper than just “Mr Maliki” or Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti – what about the albu Nasirs that Saddam belongs to? How do you talk to them? How about the fact that there are Malikis all over the country and their power base is much larger than that of any other tribe cross province (there are more of certain tribes in certain provinces, but cross province – the Malikis take it.
Scott
Don't think you're likely to do so...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
tribeguy
Yeah - it was hard - my intention was to vet council members' tribal understanding - I believe I have done that, as I still haven't gotten the answer to the question: which are the noble tribes in Iraq?
Not because no one here knows, probability is that someone or several someones may but aren't inclined to play games. The obvious answer to that is that you aren't playing games. If so, then you may be making the ol' bad impression. Like this:
Quote:
"...If that makes anybody bristle, well, that's the sound of a mind slamming shut. Hubris is a trap for everyone, from the lowly buck sergeant to the lofty general. I understand my cognitive limits. I wonder if the rest of us do?
We probably do understand ours and we collectively tend to avoid slamming minds shut and raise an eyebrow at anyone callow enough to suggest such things. To follow that with this:
Quote:
... No good answers from the peanut gallery yet, though. Just personal attacks - but the issue remains, and I won't get distracted from driving the point home, unless of course somebody can make the point for me, which is preferable.
Seems sort of a pot-kettle thing and as though you're looking for rejection and think you've found it.
But I believe you've only found skepticism. Nobody on this board rejects Privates who post here -- or high school or college students. A Sergeant with four years down range has beaucoup cred unless he shreds it by trying to be too slick and tap dance on the head of a pin and impress the locals with his smarts and savoir faire. That approach will get you some sharply worded questions and if the answer is "I have the holy grail" the intensity of scrutiny will increase because most of us hard headed old b@$!^&ds have heard that before and found out there was no pot of gold there. All that was there was another hill to climb and no water or resupply...
Don't think anyone here disputes that the Tribes are important, that you may have some fresh insights or that those tribes will strongly influence events in Iraq and nearby nations. I think the issue may not be closed minds here but a misperception on your part -- and that got started when you barged in and flooded the zone with excessively glib sales pitches and teasers. Most here don't do or play the academic mind game thing. FWIW, challenges to this crowd will generally get a reaction and if one isn't careful, it may not be the reaction one wants. Seems to me you can either modify your approach or chalk this crowd off as whatever you wish to call them / us and save everyone some time and effort.
That said, I do strongly agree with you on this: "Everything that you ever hear from any Iraqi politician is an information operation, particularly if people are taking notes. I'll add that if you check the Arabic notes and the English notes, there'll be a difference -- and those remarks apply throughout the Middle East and South Asia. Nothing there is as it seems, it's the area of the old Persian Empires; those who taught the area most of what they know. I'll also add that you may want to look at the impact of the Parthian and Sassanid Empires on the tribes if you haven't already done so.
This thread started badly ....
with its title "It's the Tribes, Stupid" (paraphrasing James Carville is not a good idea to create any sort of civilized discourse) - and hasn't improved since.
Too bad, because the subject matter area could be of interest to me. I.e., Iraqi national law was and is Euro-Code based with some modifications. The tribal setup might suggest a parallel system or sytems of tribal law of equal or greater importance.