How Courting Sheiks Slowed Violence in Iraq

[rodeodance]

money money money.


How Courting Sheiks Slowed Violence in Iraq

By Greg Jaffe
Word Count: 2,664

RAMADI, Iraq -- To understand how the U.S. managed to bring relative calm to Iraq's unruly Anbar province, it helps to pay a visit to Sheik Hamid Heiss's private compound.

On a recent morning, a 25-year-old Marine Corps lieutenant from Ohio stacked $97,259 in cash in neat piles on Sheik Heiss's gilded tea table. The money paid for food for the sheik's tribe and for two school renovation projects on which the sheik himself is the lead contractor. Even the marble-floored meeting hall where the cash was handed over reflects recent U.S. largesse: The Marines paid Sheik Heiss and his ...

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