Posted on 05/25/2007 11:14:54 AM PDT by ASC2006
The growing confrontation between tribal leaders in Anbar Province and Al Qaeda took a violent turn on Thursday when a suicide bomber drove into a crowd gathering for a funeral procession in the volatile city of Falluja, killing at least 27 people and wounding dozens of others.
The attack on the mourners followed a pattern of two-stage assaults that has been replicated often in the four-year war. At breakfast time, masked gunmen assassinated a prominent Sunni Arab tribal leader, Allawi al-Issawi, who had joined others across Anbar in opposing terrorist groups linked to Al Qaeda. Less than three hours later, as mourners gathered for a funeral procession outside the tribal leader’s home, the suicide bomber struck.
The tribal leaders’ campaign has helped make Anbar one of the few bright spots in Iraq for the Americans. With many of the Sunni sheiks calling on their followers to join the Iraqi Army and police and declaring Al Qaeda a common enemy of Iraqi Sunnis, the levels of violence across much of Anbar have dropped sharply, especially in the provincial capital of Ramadi and in towns along the Euphrates River valley.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
That is exactly what we want in Western Iraq a pro-American militia that maintains security like the Kurds have in the North. The Sunnis will never trust the Shia to protect them nor should they.
By the way Shiek Sattar and the military and political heads he has put in place of the ASC are almost all secular and pro-American.
Lebanon is more strategic to US interests...
>>>It makes me sick to think we are flying plane loads of weapons to Lebanon and we aren’t doing nearly enough to help our best allies in Iraq out of fear of being accused of creating another militia.
Supplying and providing training, intelligence and backup to anti-Al Qaeda Sunnis is a top priority of the US Army.
That is such crap I can’t believe you even said it. When all is said an done we will have put nearly a trillion dollars into Iraq and the probably around 5000 Americans will have lost their lives fighting on what is the second largest oil reserve in the world and you say Lebanon matters more?
LOL
No, what is keeping the US from really funding our allies in Iraq and equipping them is fear. It is the same fear that has kept us from building a real Iraqi Army. The fear is if we do this or this it could come back to bite us. In Iraq the mistakes made in the past have led to the Pentagon and govt thinking things over a thousand times before doing them.
Are you accusing general General Caldwell of lying?
He made clear in his last press conference that the US is not supplying weapons to the Anbar Salvation Council that the Iraqi Interior Ministry is and he even said he knows of the complaints of the tribes that the Shia led government gives them nothing for weapons and equipment.
Not in the slightest.
He made clear in his last press conference that the US is not supplying weapons to the Anbar Salvation Council that the Iraqi Interior Ministry is
The Anbar Salvation Council is not the sole anti-Al Qaeda Sunni organization - much of this movement is still on a tribe-by-tribe basis.
and he even said he knows of the complaints of the tribes that the Shia led government gives them nothing for weapons and equipment.
And the US is taking measures even as we speak to encourage the Iraqi government to be more generous.
I will point out that General Campbell knows of these complaints because the Army already has men on the ground liaising with and assisting these groups.
Iraqi soldiers switching over to M-16s and M-4s
In a major shift of weaponry, the Iraqi army is crossing over from the AK-47 assault rifle to the American-made M-16 and M-4 rifles, U.S. military and Iraqi officials have confirmed.
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=53489&archive=true
Where did you hear that? We're still supporting the Iraqi government militarily. We are teaching them how to stand on their own and letting them do some of the procurement, payroll, etc. for their national security forces with our guidance. Iraq's budget had a rather substantial surplus last year. We are encouraging them to spend their own money and we are right there beside them mentoring them through all of this.
This is the transition process and therefore, part of their learning and growing process.
As for anything for our allies, the coalition is still paying for all of that. The Iraq government has not been asked to procure or pay for anything utilized directly or indirectly by the coalition. And the coalition is still picking up the tab on several Iraqi initiatives as well. But we are working to transition that part over to them.
Supporting the Iraqi military is one thing.
I am talking about suppporting the Anbar Salvation Council. We didn’t support the Anbar tribes the last time they tried to opposed al-Qaeda in late 2005 and they were butchered.
Lets just say I heard from a friend in the service that America can’t depend on the Iraqi government for supporting the Anbar Salvation Council and if the Council is not strongly the Shieks like this one murdered by al-Qaeda will continue to die until Ramadi is again a base for al-Qaeda.
Basically the just of the message I got last week was the US needs to support the Iraq Salvation Council, we can’t leave it up to the Maliki government
Duh.
But, the Sunni community is as diverse as is the politics in the United States. Saying all Sunnis are with al-Qaeda is like saying all Americans are with John Murtha.
So Al-Qaeda is in Iraq?
Interesting. I guess that would make it part of the GWOT.
I wish I could tell you more, but I can't. I will say that not all of the high up people calling the shots for natioanl security disbursements are Shia. And I will say that things are in the works as far as the Sunni groups that are fighting al Qaeda.
The Anbar Salvation Council has not been abandoned.
I LOVE your tagline! ROFL!
They are, but not all Sunnis are al Qaeda. I personally know plenty of Sunnis who despise al Qaeda as much as we do. Most Iraqis in general hate them. They crave peace and al Qaeda is one of the bigger stumbling blocks.
I also know plenty of Shia who despise Muqtada al Sadr. Same reason.
(It makes me sick to think we are flying plane loads of weapons to Lebanon...)
I’d love to know where you’re getting that info. The Lebanese Army is probably the worst equipped army in the Middle East, and has been kept deliberately weak.
They are Sunnis; but they are fundamental Muslims who don't collaborate with Infidels like us, as many of the secular Iraqis do. - tom
I hope you are right Allegra, some of the ERUs, provental security forces, or whatever they are calling them these days have been running low on ammo and many have gone a couple months getting a pay check.
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