“A cautionary tale”: The fall of the sheik behind the Anbar Awakening

Hot Air ^ | June 11,2015 | ED MORRISSEY

[Hojczyk]

But the sheik’s fortunes began to decline after the last U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq in 2011. Many of the Anbari fighters, known as the Sons of Iraq, were never paid by the Iraqi government, then led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. What’s more, Sheik Ahmad told me in 2012 that his contacts with the U.S. government stopped after the last troops pulled out. The sheik still publicly aligned himself with Maliki and the central government, even thought that government was failing to provide basic security in western Iraq.

These failures by the Baghdad government created the conditions for the Islamic State’s take over of Anbar. According to research from Craig Whiteside, a professor at the Naval War College and a former U.S. Army officer who worked with tribes in Iraq, al-Qaeda and later the Islamic State continued a campaign to assassinate tribal leaders even in 2009 and 2010, when the group was widely considered to be finished.

Simply landing 450 “advisers” in the middle of the mess created by the precipitate American withdrawal won’t solve the core problem, which is that no one trusts the Obama administration as a partner. Obama bailed on the American commitment to Anbar tribes when it became politically expedient for him to do so, and the tribal leaders in Anbar won’t rush to put their necks on the line to do America’s bidding without large numbers of Americans on the ground fighting with them, and Americans guaranteeing Sunni access to power in Baghdad for a long time to come afterward.

T the reality of the choice Obama has to make about ISIS: to fight or to cut and run. Sunni tribal leaders are likely to bet on the latter based on personal experience. Don’t expect to see too many tribal fighters in class.

[oldbrowser]

That goes for American servicemen as well. Why put life and limb on the line when the president is liable to pull the rug out from under you at any moment. He doesn’t seem to have any more loyalty to his troops than he does for our allies.

[DiogenesLamp]

“A cautionary tale”: The fall of the sheik behind the Anbar Awakening

Trusting the United States? That was a mistake. You see, we occasionally elect Democrats, and therefore we cannot be trusted as a Nation.

We will lie and we will not keep our promises.