16 Bodies found in Baghdad
Anbar Tribal Model Questioned
The 'Anbar Model' of arming Sunni tribespeople to fight religious extremists is being queried by many experts.
Sawt al-Iraq reports in Arabic that the Da`wa Party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, and the Kurdistan Alliance, have made a new compact, in an attempt to support Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
McClatchy reports on further political violence in Iraq on Monday, beyond the horrific bombings in Baghdad, Hilla and Baiji. Police found 16 corpses in the streets of the capital. Major incidents excerpted below:
'Baghdad:
- Around 10 a.m. a road side bomb exploded in Zafaraniyah neighborhood. 2 civilians were injured. . .
- Around 1 p.m. mortar shells landed in Al Saidiyah neighborhood injuring 3 residents.
Salaheddin:
- Iraqi police source said that seven civilians were killed and 2 were injured near Al Dujail when a U.S. military helicopter opened fire on a mini bus but U.S. military officials denied the incident occurred.
- A road side bomb exploded targeting a police vehicle on the main road near Al Dujail north of Baghdad this morning. 1 policeman killed and 3 were injured. Basra
- Police found the dead body of the assistant of the intelligence head of the 10th Iraqi army division in Basra in Al Fersi area central Basra last night. LC Fares Mohammed was kidnapped yesterday. The kidnappers released his bodyguards and his driver. '
AP reports on the US troops wounded in Iraq:
' More than 800 of them have lost an arm, a leg, fingers or toes. More than 100 are blind. Dozens need tubes and machines to keep them alive. Hundreds are disfigured by burns, and thousands have brain injuries and damaged minds. These are America’s war wounded, a toll that has received less attention than the 3,500 troops killed in Iraq. Depending on how you count them, they number between 35,000 and 53,000. '
Desert tent camps are no fun in 115 degrees F. in the Iraqi summer heat.
The International Crisis Group draws attention to failing security and government institutions in Basra, and worries that the failures in Basra will afflict the whole country.
Jennifer Loewenstein on the triumph of US and Israeli policy in Palestine/ Gaza.
The USG Open Source Center paraphrases items in the Iraqi press for June 25:
' Al-Zaman publishes on page 3 a 400-word report entitled "Tikrit Residents Criticize Prosecution of Former Iraqi Army Commanders Regardless of National Reconciliation Project."
Al-Zaman runs on page 3 a 450-word report entitled "US Forces Hand Over Further Security Responsibilities in Iraqi Governorates; Washington Counts on Military Operations To Begin Withdrawal."
Al-Zaman runs on page 4 a 200-word report on the appointment of Ammar al-Hakim as deputy chairman of the Iraqi Islamic Supreme Council.
Al-Mashriq runs on the front page a 120-word report saying that the Unified Iraqi Coalition blocked some political blocs from increasing the Presidential Council's authority.
Al-Mashriq runs on page 2 a 600-word report citing the Iraqi List demanding to postpone the implementation of article 140 of the constitution about Kirkuk and keep Mahmud al-Mashahdni as Speaker of the Iraqi parliament. The List hopes that a new political block, which includes all parties participating in the political process, will help ameliorate the current situation.
Dar al-Salam on 24 June publishes on the front page a 140-word report entitled "Governmental Forces Arrest 12 Wanted Al-Mahdi Army Elements in Al-Nasiriyah."
Dar al-Salam on 24 June runs on page 4 a 1,300-word report entitled "Children, Victims of Sectarian Violence, Abduction, Extortion; 6,800 Children Killed Since Beginning of This Year."
Ishraqat al-Sadr on 24 June carries on the front page a 400-word report on a statement by Ayatollah Kazim al-Ha'iri accusing the "occupation" of the Samarra bombings to fuel sectarian sedition between Shiite and Sunnis and loot Iraq's resources.
Ishraqat al-Sadr on 24 June carries on the front page a 500-word report citing Shaykh Usamah al-Tamimi, during the Friday sermon in Al-Kazimiyah, urging Muslims to visit the holy shrine in Samarra.
Al-Da'wah on 24 June carries on the front page a 450-word exclusive report entitled: 'Dissolved Ba'th Party: Requests Leaders to Return to Iraq, Join Tribes To Receive Weapons According to US Decision.
Al-Adala runs on page 2 a 140-word report saying that Maysan tribes [in Shiite South Iraq] refused to be armed by US forces'
Labels: Iraq
posted by Juan Cole @ 6/26/2007 12:29:00 AM
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3 Comments:
Thanks for the link to Jennifer Loewenstein's informative analysis. I wonder how one distinguishes the goal of destroying HAMAS from the goal of destroying the Palestinian people. If the US strategy is to destroy HAMAS, a group I think it's fair to characterize as opposed to separating "church and state," that makes sense, given America's view of the so-called "war on terrorism." In that context, it even makes sense for America to insist on secular governments, something we failed to do in Iraq. If the goal is to destroy the Palestinian people, however, it's hard to see how that can be in America's interest. I hope Ms. Loewenstein is wrong about us on that point. It may be Israel's strategy to carve the occupied territories up into smaller and smaller pieces, and it may be that Americans are fools, but I don't believe the American people would approve consciously of a foreign policy that aimed at the destruction of the Palestinians.
"Let them eat cake"
The critics of arming locals fail to say who else is going to provide the security to the ordinary Iraqis, one of their most basic human rights.
The Americans, who as occupying power are fully responsible for security, want the locals to risk their lives by reporting anti-American activists, only to be left totally exposed.
The Iraqi "government" is not interested. In fact, it is in many ways a terror organization which is attacking its citizens.
Query: Do the critics of the Anbar tribal strategy understand the history of the control of Anbar and other rural/small settlement areas over the last century?
I have read that both Saddam and the British before him managed the tribal areas through collaborating sheiks. If there is a long history of devolving local enforcement to the sheiks, can the sheiks take the lead in local enforcement without the support of US military supplies?
It appears that trying local enforcement by occupation troops has been a failure in Anbar. Is there any reasonable alternative, in the immediate future, to using the traditional structure of the tribal councils, etc., to control Al-Quaeda forces? In the current state of economic and social development of the tribal settlements, is there any alternative politically to the political power that tribal councils and sheiks derive from traditional structures?
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