In the sheiks' hands (The Power Held by Iraqi Tribal Leaders)

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/09/1068329422566.html

The tribal leaders of Iraq are pivotal in ending the violence against US forces and securing the nation's peace. But the Americans do not understand their power, writes Paul McGeough in the second part of an investigation.

IT IS evening in Baghdad. In the sitting room of his home, the political scientist Wamidh Nadhmi had quickly traversed the history of the Iraq tribes and now he's demanding an answer: "Why don't the Americans simply demand that the sheiks provide law and order?"

Later, Dr Abdul Hamid Al Rawi, from the College of Political Science at the University of Baghdad, enters the debate on the tribes from a different angle: "As long as a tribe is big and powerful, then its sheik is big and powerful. Despite the efforts of the British and the monarchy it installed, and the renegades who plotted against it and its successor republics, the tribes still exist.

"They have survived the confiscation of much of the sheiks' sprawling land holdings, being stripped of much of their powers, and, when he became desperate, Saddam's appointment of what became known as the 'Swiss sheiks' - ring-ins who were not born into sheik families but who the former president believed would run the tribes according to his will.


"If the US works with the tribes in the right way, they might succeed. The tribes could provide security and protection for local directorates, hospitals, schools and factories. The tribes are able to provide stability and to be a dependable ally for the US in neighbourhood affairs.

<snip>

Good investigative piece.

"This is what the British did in the 1920s - they supported Sheik Abdul Razak Ali Sulieman. He was the Sheik of Sheiks of the Dulame tribe and they gave him the authority of a governor over the western region of Iraq."

Important question: could today's sheiks stop the attacks on the US?

[Gloria]

1. Perhaps related to this......editor of the Turkish Daily News says that

if US transfers to Iraqi troops, esp. a force made up of Kurds and Shias, we will be creating a WARLORD situation.

Isn't that special??

1//Inter Press Service News Agency November 8, 2003

http://www.ips.org/index.htm



Analysis

U.S. STUCK WITHOUT A TURKISH CRUTCH

Analysis by Hilmi Toros


(SNIP)

The U.S. sees no role for Turkish troops over the next six months. It is counting on recruitment from within Iraq for security as it scales down its forces from 132,000 to 100,000 in the face of body bags coming home in increasing numbers.

”It is clear that the Iraqi Governing Council members managed to convince U.S. chief administrator for Iraq L. Paul Bremer that only a new Iraqi security force composed of militia members could really handle the security situation,” says Ilnur Cevik, editor of the English-language Turkish Daily News.

But banking on security from Iraqi forces, particularly Kurds in the north and Shias in the south raises prospects of a ”warlord” culture, says Cevik. ”The Americans should be aware that once they invaded Iraq, they let the cat out of the bag.”

(MORE)

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

2. PNAC didn't have a clue about societal constructions in the ME.

If they did, they must have secretly been planning on genocide because that's about the only way they are going to turn the ME into America II. These people are rightfully proud of their homelands and heritage. We aren't going to change them in a couple of years.