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First Sunnis, Now Shiite Sheiks Seek To Join Coalition Against Terrorist Militias
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| First Sunnis, Now Shiite Sheiks Seek To Join Coalition Against Terrorist Militias
- Click HERE to go to the original thread with graphics
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| VacateTheWord |
U.S. expands Anbar model to Iraq Shiites
American commanders in southern Iraq say Shiite sheiks are showing interest in joining forces with the U.S. military against extremists, in much the same way that Sunni clansmen in the western part of the country have worked with American forces against al-Qaida.
Sheik Majid Tahir al-Magsousi, the leader of the Migasees tribe here in Wasit province, acknowledged tribal leaders have discussed creating a brigade of young men trained by the Americans to bolster local security as well as help patrol the border with Iran.
He also said last week's assassination of Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, who spearheaded the Sunni uprising against al-Qaida in Anbar province, only made the Shiite tribal leaders more resolute.
"The death of Sheik Abu Risha will not thwart us," he said. "What matters to us is Iraq and its safety."
The movement by Shiite clan leaders offers the potential to give U.S. and Iraqi forces another tactical advantage in curbing lawlessness in Shiite areas. It also would give the Americans another resource as they beef up their presence on the border with Iran, which the military accuses of arming and training Shiite extremists.
Similar alliances with Sunni tribes in the western Anbar province helped break the grip of groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq and were widely cited in the Washington hearings as a major military success this year.
Such pacts to fill the vacuum left by Iraqi police and soldiers unable or unwilling to act against Shiite militias carry even greater potential spinoffs for Iraq's U.S.-backed leadership — but also higher risks.
Shiites represent about 60 percent of Iraq's population and the bulk of the security forces and parliament. Worsening the current Shiite-on-Shiite battles could ripple to the highest levels.
But U.S. officials at the heart of the effort hope to tap a wellspring of public frustration with militias and criminal gangs to recruit the tribal volunteers, although they stress it is still in the early stages.
"It's an anti-militia movement ... Shiite extremists of all stripes," said Wade Weems, head of a Provincial Reconstruction Team leading the dialogue in the Wasit province southeast of Baghdad.
"We see consistently expressed deep frustration or anger with the activities of militia that appear to be untethered to any sort of guiding authority, appear to be really criminal in nature," he added.
But while the military has made inroads with Sunni leaders in some Baghdad neighborhoods and areas surrounding the capital, including Diyala province, officials stressed it's too early to know if efforts to extend the strategy to Shiite leaders will take root.
"This is a very different province and a very different dynamic and we're not going to just adopt lock, stock and barrel another province's model and impose it here," Weems said. "This will take some time for us to understand exactly what it is these tribes want to do."
In Anbar, the goal of the Sunnis was to drive al-Qaida in Iraq away from towns and villages because of the terror movement's attempt to impose a rigorous Islamic lifestyle.
In Wasit, which borders Iran, the goal is to rein in armed Shiite groups, some of them probably armed by Iran, which are locked in a power struggle that is making life intolerable for ordinary people.
U.S. officers believe last month's fighting among rival Shiite militias during a religious festival in Karbala may have been the last straw. Up to 52 people died in the clashes, which marred what was supposed to be a joyous celebration.
Anger also rose after the assassinations of two southern provincial governors that were seen as part of a brutal contest among rival Shiite militias to control parts of Iraq's main oil regions.
Fearing a backlash, Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of Iraq's biggest militia, ordered a six-month freeze on his Mahdi Army's activities and began reorganizing the force to purge unruly elements.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the militias appeared to be alienating the Shiite community with internal violence in the same way al-Qaida in Iraq caused Sunni leaders to turn against it.
"There are some signs that the Shia are perhaps beginning to have the same — get the same kind of wake-up call with respect to their extremists that the Sunnis in Anbar did," he said.
Since Karbala, Weems said he has attended a "flurry of meetings" with sheiks interested in ways they can use their formidable influence to help restore order.
"They are well aware of what's happened in Anbar province, the role that the tribes played in securing some of the less secure areas in that province," he said. "There has been a good deal of success with those, not just in Anbar but in other areas."
Army Capt. Majid al-Imara, who said he has been charged with establishing the new force, said each battalion will be made up of 350 men chosen by tribal leaders, and they will be armed and equipped by the Iraqi government and paid $300 monthly, he said.
Col. Peter Baker, the commander of the 214th Fires Brigade that took over Forward Operating Base Delta near Kut in June, also said the idea was for the tribal volunteers to act as an "auxiliary police force" that could provide security in an organized fashion but let the sheiks maintain control of tribal members.
One of the obstacles is the lack of a single enemy, such as al-Qaida in Iraq, which alienated Sunni tribal leaders and even other insurgents by killing sheiks and trying to impose a strict interpretation of Islam.
Shiites are getting increasingly fed up, however, with the fighting among rival militia groups, as well as the criminal nature of gangs engaging in extortion and setting up illegal checkpoints.
Weems acknowledged fears that the tribal leaders could abuse their authority and said he expected the movement to start with small groups that would receive mandatory training in when and how to use force, with careful monitoring.
"As with any group that is taking on a security function where the police seem to be failing, there are concerns," he said. "We'll probably adopt a model of growing these from smaller groups and measuring their success before we broaden it."
But, he said, the ultimate goal was to quickly "integrate those tribal volunteers into one branch of the Iraqi security forces, be it the army, the police or — here in Wasit — the border patrol."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070916...q_shiite_sheiks |
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| iatebethO |
| Mission Accomplished - Again |
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| VacateTheWord |
Quote: Originally posted by iatebethO
Mission Accomplished - Again |
Give me a break. No one is saying "mission accomplished."
Too bad you seem to refuse to recognize progress when it is being made. I'm sure during World War II you would have dismissed Iwo Jima as a pointless mission to take a big rock in the middle of the ocean and would have blasted the picture of the soldiers raising the flag as dishonest propaganda concocted by the White House.
:rolleyes: |
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| bcmiller |
We have armed and supported people who we used to call "insurgents" and now they support us instead of Al Queda, for now. That is why the Sunni leaders in Anbar have flipped.
The whole thing is ridiculous. We should not know or care this much about Iraqi geography or politics. We should just be buying their oil and sending them porn and cars.
We will leave Iraq and they will continue to fight like they have for the last millennium. We are going broke by financing this war with inflation and borrowing from the Chinese at a clip of about 2-3 billion a day. Even Amb Crocker is saying there is no victory to be had. They have even stopped using the word "victory" and they now say "success". I am a former US Marine and we are very versed in our history. I never remember anyone calling Iwo Jima a "sucess", it was a Victory.
The reasons to go were wrong so the reasons to stay do not exist. How much more should we spend before we eventually leave without victory? How many more men and women should be maimed or killed before people like Bush and Huckabee feel they have honor?
Please, jump off this bandwagon and help us call a little louder for an end to this needless war sooner than later. The American people did not "break Iraq" this administration did and it is not the American people who should continue to suffer to try and pump water out of the titanic. |
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| zimmie |
| A sound strategy/ Petraeus is a genius. Still waiting for a Democrat plan if the troops are pulled immediately. |
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| bcmiller |
Arming an on again off again enemy is not a sound strategy. Claiming this was as a result of a surge is a lie.
I do not think the Democrats really want to pull out because they cannot stomach the inevitable political blame for "losing the war" when Iraq's civil war is left untended.
Ron Paul does have a plan if the troops are pulled immediately, and he would start the withdrawal on day one, not "redeploy" as the Democrats claim to want.
We bring the troops home, not just from Iraq, but from Japan, Germany, Korea, and the rest of the 130 countries on which we have over 700 bases. The money that is saved is used to beef up and recharge our military in case we are ever attacked. The money is also used to pay for entitlements for those dependent on government. We will need that money because we will no longer have an IRS, SS tax or income tax to pay for these programs. (Right now the income tax pays for only 38% of our government. If we only reduced to the year 2000 budget the income tax would be unnecessary.)
We will protect our own borders instead of Iraq's and start to end the lures to illegal immigration, easy citizenship (birthright and amnesty) and entitlements (welfare state).
We will talk to and trade with other nations instead of trying to convert them to democracy by the point of a gun. They will see our prosperity and freedom and want to emulate us instead of attack us.
Bin Laden would not get off the hook as he has now. We would issue letters of Marque and Reprisal and reward the military contractor who brings us Bin Laden's head on a platter with a billion dollars. (a great bargain compared to 500 billion and no Bin Laden).
We would continue our intelligence gathering but without violating the constitution. We would respect gun rights so the people will no longer be 100% dependent on the government to protect us. Companies would be able to fulfill their responsibility to protect their property and customers.
Most importantly we would no longer cower in fear from countries who have no military and no nukes. We would end our US sponsored Al Queda recruitment drive by not intervening in the internal affairs of other nations. We would once again have a country that values liberty over life and independence over government dependence.
edit:
to clarify... If all of these changes happened too fast it would be destabilizing so we need to gradually head back toward the constitution so no one is left out the cold. However, just because the road is long does not mean we should not start the journey. The other direction is not a happy ending. |
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| patcracker |
| Basically the Shia want to be paid too. This is a chicken shit way of trying to achieve order. Its like giving your lunch money to a bully so he wont beat you up. |
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| harley-davidson |
Quote: Originally posted by patcracker
Basically the Shia want to be paid too. This is a chicken shit way of trying to achieve order. Its like giving your lunch money to a bully so he wont beat you up. |
So Vacate and Zimmie never had money for lunch ?...LOL |
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| m00k |
Quote: Originally posted by VacateTheWord
......the picture of the soldiers raising the flag as dishonest propaganda concocted by the White House.
:rolleyes: |
It was. |
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| patcracker |
Quote: Originally posted by harley-davidson
So Vacate and Zimmie never had money for lunch ?...LOL |
And their mom's always wondered why thier underwear was stretched...... |
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| NC-Stern-Mark |
Quote: Originally posted by m00k
It was. |
Propaganda or dishonest propaganda?
Propaganda is a given during *any* war.
The very existence of Democracy quite probably owes itself to propaganda. |
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| otherone4life |
| sure ...they want in on the bribery and weapons caches we are using to pacify the sunnis ...meanwhile their death squads have ethnically cleansed baghdad with our assistance as we've built 12 foot blast walls between ethnic neighborhoods ..keep drinking the kool aid moron |
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| ChaseDC |
Quote: Originally posted by zimmie
A sound strategy/ Petraeus is a genius. Still waiting for a Democrat plan if the troops are pulled immediately. |
*yawn* |
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| otherone4life |
Polling in Anbar from Aug. 17-24 (see, Gary Langer, Director of Polling for ABC News "What They're Saying in Anbar Province"):
72 percent of Anbar residents expressed no confidence in US Forces
76 percent said US forces should withdraw immediately
69 percent "strongly" opposed the presence of US troops in Iraq
68 percent called the US invasion "absolutely" wrong
Nearly 100 percent called attacks on coalition forces "acceptable"
Stop drinking the Kool Aid. All the Sunni sheiks (and shiites for that matter) is $ and material for the inevitable civil war (which we will be funding) |
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| ChaseDC |
| To request that sheep like vacate, dimmie, ncmoron and stoney to stop drinking the kool aid is like taking away their lifeline. |
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