Situation Improving in Anbar
I had to read the name of the newspaper that published this article twice: yes it is the New York Times and it has a positive article up about Iraq. It seems that the violence in the Sunni province of Anbar (many Baathists there) has decreased dramatically since the start of the surge. Sunnis are now working with the US to push Al Qaeda out of Anbar province.
Anbar Province, long the lawless heartland of the tenacious Sunni Arab resistance, is undergoing a surprising transformation. Violence is ebbing in many areas, shops and schools are reopening, police forces are growing and the insurgency appears to be in retreat.“Many people are challenging the insurgents,†said the governor of Anbar, Maamoon S. Rahid, though he quickly added, “We know we haven’t eliminated the threat 100 percent.â€
Many Sunni tribal leaders, once openly hostile to the American presence, have formed a united front with American and Iraqi government forces against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. With the tribal leaders’ encouragement, thousands of local residents have joined the police force. About 10,000 police officers are now in Anbar, up from several thousand a year ago. During the same period, the police force here in Ramadi, the provincial capital, has grown from fewer than 200 to about 4,500, American military officials say.
Good, no great, news, but as the NYT’s Kirk Semple makes clear, it is way too early to declare victory in Anbar. The situation is still “uneasy and fragile:†today’s alliances can be broken tomorrow, “municipal services remain a wreck; local governments, while reviving, are still barely functioning; and years of fighting have damaged much of Ramadi.â€
That being said, the development is highly positive and promising.
Ed Morrissey adds:
Life has not yet returned to normal, nor even close to it. Infrastructure still has yet to be rebuilt, and the loyalty of America’s new allies still remains uncertain. What does appear certain is that this former stronghold of Ba’athist resentment no longer wants to exist in a cycle of oppression, liberation, and destruction. They want to end the fighting by eliminating the insurgents.
The question will be whether they stick with that in the face of an imminent American withdrawal. It has taken four years for Anbar to understand that Sunni domination in Iraq has ended and will not return, neither in the guise of Saddam Hussein nor in a military junta ruled by Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the chief Ba’athist dead-ender. Now that they have finally pulled together with the US to oppose the increasingly lunatic al-Qaeda terrorists, we have lost the will to fight the insurgents ourselves — or at least Congress has.
Cross posted at my own blog.
4 Responses to “Situation Improving in Anbar”
so, in my dream world, this doesn’t break down to a situation where the administration says ‘the surge is working’ – pointing to Anbar, and congress saying ‘the surge isn’t working’ – pointing to Baghdad. They’d both be right.
What we need now are leaders who will acknowledge what’s working where and what else needs to be tried elsewhere. And providing serious support to the progress in Anbar so the rest of the country can see what might await them.
Morrissey misreads Anbar. He claims, “It has taken four years for Anbar to understand that Sunni domination in Iraq has ended and will not return, neither in the guise of Saddam Hussein nor in a military junta ruled by Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the chief Ba’athist dead-ender.” Nowhere does the article suggest that. All it says is that the various Anbar insurgent and tribal groups – often intermixed – decided that Al Qaeda was too vicious to have around. So they banded together under the banner of the Anbar Salvation Front and made a temporary alliance with the US and Iraqi government to get rid of Al Qaeda. Nowhere does this suggest that the various tribal and insurgent elements in Iraq – who still attack Americans and Iraqi government officials – wish to accept a new Shi’ite-dominated central Iraqi government. In fact, all it says is that Al Qaeda can be taken care of by Iraqis themselves. The only thing standing in the way is the US presence in Iraq, which only encourages otherwise sound people to shelter Al Qaeda up to and beyond the boiling point. Remove the US presence in Iraq and allow the Sunnis to fight their Shi’ite and Al Qaeda enemies. They must have a stake in it. But never think for a second that this means the Sunnis have suddently accepted the Shi’ite government.
There’s nothing to worry about in Iraq. Even as we speak the Iraqi Parliament Planning TWO MONTH Recess to kick back and celebrate the fruits of all their hard work… NOT!
Just imagine… The Iraq Parliment takes their break in June… They return to work just in time to see how the Bush Surge worked.
Could it be they don’t think Baghdad will be very safe this summer?
Could someone explain again why benchmarks are such a bad idea?
I don’t understand your need for gratuitous New York Times-bashing.