Posted on 02/02/2004 6:10:15 AM PST by mark502inf
Issaki, Iraq -- The crew-cut U.S. Army captain sat on the salon floor with elders of Iraq's outlaw Jassat tribe. The American fingered his own prayer beads, as the Iraqis did theirs. But the officer lost patience waiting for the tribe to turn over one of several members wanted for killing U.S. troops and local truckers.
"There's no negotiation. They're going to turn him in or I'm going to destroy their whole tribe," Capt. Karl Pfuetze, 36, shouted to a translator, his voice rising in pitch and exasperation before the assembled crowd. "I'm going to put 50 people from Jassat in jail every day until they freakin' turn them in!"
His encounter Jan. 23 in the muddy farmlands of central Iraq laid bare the hardball tribal politics that some American commanders are playing as they try to subdue the insurgency. Army officers work the sheik network with a combination of customary formality, incentives and force.
Pfuetze had tried the "easy way," giving a sheik who served as mediator the opportunity to talk the tribe into cooperating.
When nothing came of it, the American officer came to the dingy meeting room to provide some "motivation" -- shouting his threat and later arresting a police colonel from the tribe to hold as collateral until the wanted man surrendered later that night.
Pfuetze acknowledged that sometimes he detained people to make others surrender -- three female relatives of a wanted man, in one recent case.
"It's the Arab way. You've got to," Pfuetze insisted. That is how tribes work, he said, and occupying forces have to adapt. "The U.S. is the biggest tribe on the block."
Cooperation has payoff
Tribal systems are hardly democratic; in fact, they are based on suppressing individuals to the will of a hereditary line of leaders, or sheiks, and holding the tribe responsible for the actions of its members.
But Army commanders have learned that sheiks -- guided by concern for their tribe or at least by their own lust for authority or money -- can be tools for restoring order in a land without a working government.
So the Army has formed local sheik councils and is seeking their support. Cooperative sheiks will win jobs, public works projects and contracts on their tribal turf -- all enhancing the sheiks' status. On the other hand, those who do not cooperate face Army raids, house demolitions and arrest.
Though the tactics have clearly brought some tribes on board, they have their detractors. Home demolition and mass detention are decried by human rights groups and many Iraqis. They often punish relatives rather than insurgents.
In a recent article in the journal Foreign Affairs, Middle East expert Kenneth Pollack warned of a possible backlash in reaction to "overly aggressive military operations."
The tactics do not compare in scale and severity to those Saddam Hussein used to intimidate the country's restive tribes. But the Americans, like Saddam, have tried to co-opt the tribes.
"The head sheik was paid by Saddam Hussein to keep the peace," Col. Bob Swisher said of the sheiks around his base near Balad, a town in central Iraq. "The first question he had was 'How much are YOU going to pay me to keep the peace?' "
Swisher said he explained that the Army would keep the peace whether the sheik helped or not. The sheik's town had already been enclosed with barbed wire and was tightly controlled by U.S. troops.
But Swisher showed the sheiks that if they worked with the Americans, their authority would be bolstered by participation in local government. They would get projects and jobs for their people.
A ready participant
The combination of force and tribal politics has helped reduce insurgent mortar attacks aimed at Swisher's base. Part of the credit goes to Aziz al-Zigam of Baghdad, who serves as a model for the plums that can come to a helpful sheik.
Through his early alliance with American commanders, he received a permit to carry weapons for his protection and letters of introduction that grant him access to U.S. officers.
About three weeks ago, al-Zigam and his right-hand man, Iraqi-American physician Sahib al-Memar, requested that Capt. Pfuetze let them mediate with the Jassat tribe.
The tribe is desperate to end the home demolitions and Pfuetze's raids. Pfuetze is seeking to stop the illegal tapping of oil and gasoline pipelines through Jassat territory -- likely by the tribe itself. Worse, members of the tribe, Pfuetze said, have killed two American soldiers in mortar attacks and 18 truckers and Iraqi security men in a hijacking spree.
The meeting in the village of Issaki began without Pfuetze. Al-Zigam came in a fleet of five cars with other sheiks to make the case for cooperation.
The crowd of about 50 from the Jassat tribe listened to al-Zigam, 65, describe how he had been arrested numerous times by Saddam. He was even arrested once by mistake by U.S. forces -- something he noted when the tribesmen complained about harsh American treatment.
"When I tell the Americans that I need something, they do it because they trust me," he said.
By the time Pfuetze's men rolled up in an armored car and Humvee, the tribe had already sent a father to bring his fugitive son for surrender. But Pfuetze, doubting that the man would ever return, made clear that U.S. force would be the alternative.
"They are going to jail or I am going to kill them," he warned.
The brash captain's straight talk struck a note with the tribe, and a rapport developed. In addition to hurling the accusations of thievery and murder, Pfuetze shared jokes and a lunch of lamb and rice with the Jassat elders.
At the same time, Pfuetze had his troops sweeping through the area, where they arrested 30 men, including four on a wanted list.
A day later, Pfuetze confirmed that the wanted man discussed at the lunch finally did surrender.
The Army captain assessed the tribal approach. He noted that in the 10 days it took al-Zigam to persuade the tribe to give up the man, four more people were killed on the road.
"This is not the route we can go for all" the wanted, he said. "There's an easy way and there's a hard way. You've got to make the hard way really hard and make the easy way really easy."
ROFL
"I will let you live".
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