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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Friday, September 28, 2007

The breakdown of the "tribal deals" in Diyala?

The AP hits at the main longer term sticking point in the US's recent deals with the Sunni tribal groups.
A U.S. effort to recruit former Sunni insurgents north of Baghdad — considered crucial to expanding the fight against extremists — is in danger of collapse because the government has been unable or unwilling to accept the volunteers into Iraqi security forces.

In Anbar, there is no Shia or government presence at all, so the US can standup and fund the militia/tribal forces without challenge, but in Diyala where the Iraqi government still has a presence, the pretenses of the tribal deals become more evident.

The "tribal deals" are between the Sunnis and the US, not the Sunnis and the Shia/Iraqi government. The Shia want no part of these deals empowering Sunnis or placing them into the security forces.

Things in the Iraqi government/security forces are the way they are (Shia dominated/militia infiltrated) because the Shia want it that way. The US military is trying to jam these Sunni "tribal deals" down their throat.

Watch this, because if it blows up, the US's promises that have built many of these Sunni peace deals may blow up with it.

2 Comments:

  • So the Kurds want independence, take northern Iraq and let the Arabs kill each other over the rest. In a sense, partitioning.

    The Sunni and Shia don't want "partitioning" because they each want all the land and resources. They do want apartheid, however.

    It's kind of like Jerusalem, where each group hates the other other, but each claims possession of the real estate.

    By Blogger -epm, at 12:44 PM  

  • Generally, yeah, but it's not so much the real estate. The Sunnis don't want to abandon their claim on oil and non-desert land, while the Shia think they can control over everything if they can keep it all together.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 1:29 PM  

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