Progress in Anbar? Yes, but the mission is not yet accomplished

Stars and Stripes interviewed Col. Sean B. MacFarland, a brigade commander who just returned to Germany after a 14-month tour in Iraq, most of which was spent in Ramadi, the largest city in the restive Sunni province of Anbar. As MacFarland told the Stars and Stripes, Al Qaeda had selected Ramadi to be the capital of "Al Qaedastan."

But thanks to the help of the local shieks, in particular one Sheikh Abdul Sattar, the mostly Sunni Arabs in Ramadi turned against the insurgents.

“One thing Sheikh Sattar keeps saying is he wants al-Anbar to be like Germany and Japan and South Korea were after their respective wars, with a long-term American presence helping ... put them back together,” MacFarland is reported as saying. “The negative example he cites is Vietnam. He says, yeah, so, Vietnam beat the Americans, and what did it get them? You know, 30 years later, they’re still living in poverty.”

The New York Times reported about this tribal alliance against Al Qaeda in September, saying:

Twenty-five of about 31 tribes in Anbar, a vast, mostly desert region that stretches westward from Baghdad to the borders of Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, have united against insurgents and gangs that are “killing people for no reason,” said the tribal leader, Sheik Abdul Sattar Buzaigh al-Rishawi [yes, the man Col. MacFarland was referring to as Sheikh Sattar].

“We held a meeting earlier and agreed to fight those who call themselves mujahadeen,” Sheikh Sattar told the Times. “We believe that there is a conspiracy against our Iraqi people. Those terrorists claimed that they are fighters working on liberating Iraq, but they turned out to be killers. Now all the people are fed up and have turned against them."...

Sheikh Sattar estimated that the alliance of 25 tribes had some 30,000 armed men under its control, men who, the Sheikh said "were willing to confront and kill the insurgents and criminal gangs that he blamed for damaging tribal life in Anbar, dividing members by religious sect and driving a wave of violent crime in Ramadi."

Al Qaeda, not surprisingly, was not exactly thrilled to hear about the news of this tribal alliance. The Times quoted one Al Qaeda militant who told Reuters, “This tribal system is un-Islamic. We are proud to kill tribal leaders who are helping the Americans.”

And in spite of the progress MacFarland noticed during his stint, unfortunately, there is still an enemy that has yet to be defeated in Iraq. Just this week in fact, SITE Institute reported that the Islamic State of Iraq -the name Al Qaeda in Iraq has taken to using- claimed responsibility for three suicide bombings, two of which were targeted at the “apostate” followers of none other than Sheikh Sattar. While I'm happy to report that he survived the attacks, alas, some of those around him did not - five police officers and six civilians were reportedly killed in the blasts.