The turn to the tribes is understandable and has offered immediate gains. It is also Faustian in nature. The tribes are not interested in the long term status of an Iraqi nation. They are interested in the long term status of the tribes.
Perhaps the best balance would be to take a chapter from Saddam's playbook, eh?

Keep the dominance of the tribes intact, and allow them to maintain the same (or at least similar) free reign they did under Saddam. If I remember correctly, he maintained their allegiance through economic concessions, pseudo-autonomy in certain realms, and turned a blind eye to the occasional smuggling ventures. Now, we couldn't possibly be that laid back about it, but unless the central government is able to give those economic guarantees after the coalition has backed away, there aren't going to be enough carrots for the coaxing. This is just another nut we have to crack, and I wonder how much the PRTs are working on this issue.

I see what you're saying Tom, and in those Tatooine-like places of Rutbah, Qaim, and Husaybah, the folks there have always lived on the fringe and done pretty much their own thing. It came at the price of a culture of graft and corruption, mind you, but I agree that the sense of an "Iraqi Nation" was probably never all that strong.

And I see what you're saying goesh. Saudi Arabia's intentions, should full-blown civil war kick off, have been beaten to death by the bloglist. What if there are back channel discussions going on right now, where other states (to include the Kingdom) are providing assurance that if Al Anbar solidifies itself as a recalcitrant break-away province, the Sunnis there will be taken care of through infusions of hard cash? The model has worked before with Hamas