Quote Originally Posted by Tukhachevskii View Post
Tribal politics tend, IMO, to be of greater concern to foriegn fighters who either transit the region or end up in the pay of local strong men. However, that said see the quote below....
Sir,

What you said above negates what William Owen said. He thinks that tribalism is irrelevant in Lebanon. I wonder how much time he has spent with the ((Al-Luhayb)) of the ((Al-Jubur)) - they spend their time going between Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq! Could it be that tribes such as the ((Al-Luhayb)) of the ((Al-Jubur)) represent culturally organic lines of logistics that we refer to as "smuggling?" And if tribes are irrelevant to Hezballah - then why do we see concentrations of tribes that constitute Hezballah whereas other insurgent organizations are predominantly other tribes? Because society in the Middle East ISN'T tribal?

I think everybody here understands counterinsurgency theory well enough to know that what is important to the "green" population is what is important in counterinsurgency. Tribes are the culturally organic organizations that are important to the green population in Iraq. They have been for centuries. In the absence of a strong and effective government, such will remain the case, no?


-Tribeguy