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Anbar now showing signs of calm
Iraq's western Anbar province, the crucible of the Sunni Muslim insurgency since shortly after the U.S.-led invasion nearly three years ago, is showing signs of calm in recent weeks, and U.S. leaders say cooperation is emerging among once bitter enemies.Insurgent attacks last week in the province dropped by more than a quarter, U.S. Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said in a briefing here this week. At the same time, U.S. military and civilian leaders have softened their rhetoric against the largely Sunni insurgents. Rebels once denigrated as "Baathist thugs and killers" are now often described as nationalists. U.S. Central Command chief Gen. John Abizaid said last week's bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine - and the reprisal attacks on Sunni Arabs - created a stronger impetus for Sunni-American cooperation. "There is an improvement in Anbar," Abizaid told The Associated Press on Saturday. "A lot of people in the Sunni community are talking to us, lessening the cycle of violence. Many Sunni leaders are moving forward to take part in the political process." Abizaid was cautious in ascribing much value to the drop in attacks - from a weekly average of 145 to 104 last week - and other U.S. officials agreed the relative calm was probably temporary. U.S. military leaders have attributed improving relations in the province to several factors, including a confluence of interests. Americans frequently say Sunni participation in government is key to preventing an Iraqi civil war and the country's breakup. And Sunnis have leaned on Americans to gain leverage in Iraq's feuding political system and protection from Shiite militias. "Sunnis in, that's the key," Col. Chuck Taylor, deputy commander of a unit rebuilding Iraq's police force, said in an interview at his West Baghdad base. Taylor and Lynch say American and Iraqi leaders have cultivated dialogue with Sunni imams, tribal sheiks and other leaders. Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari recently dedicated $75 million for reconstruction projects selected by local leaders, who were visited recently by the minister of defense and deputy interior minister. The conservative province was one of Saddam Hussein's strongholds that violently turned on American troops after what many considered a pivotal event: Soldiers in the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne fired on demonstrators in Fallujah in April 2003, killing 16 and wounding 65. The U.S.-led invasion also cost Anbar's Sunnis their privileged status. Many who lost government jobs or military commissions joined the insurgency, which turned the sprawling province into the country's deadliest killing zone for American troops. A forthcoming book by U.S. Army Lt. Col. Ahmed Hashim, an adviser to Abizaid on the insurgency, says understandable grievances pushed a broad swath of Sunnis to fight the U.S. occupation. The American response - labeling the rebels "dead enders" and dismissing the idea of sharing power with them - exacerbated the war, Hashim says. "The U.S. military establishment ... has proven again that it has neither the organizational or cultural flexibility to deal with insurgencies," Hashim wrote. He said the military overemphasized the role of former members of Saddam's regime and foreigners in the insurgency. American leaders have since toned down their rhetoric against Iraq's Sunni insurgents, and there have been admissions that foreign fighters are a tiny minority among the insurgents. Lynch said the United States wants to make the most of the warming atmosphere by quickly creating jobs and improving infrastructure so the insurgency holds less allure. Other reasons have been given for the evolution in Anbar, which includes the Sunni rebel hotbeds Ramadi, Fallujah, Haditha, Qaim and others. One is an apparent slowdown in U.S. Marine offensives that coincided with the arrival of land forces commander Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli. Chiarelli has said he favors a "hearts and minds" approach that involves less combat. His predecessor, Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, oversaw a harsh U.S. counterinsurgency campaign that included regular bombings of Anbar towns along the Syrian border. Abizaid also credited some of the turnaround to the "depredations of al-Qaida," including mass killings of Iraqi civilians that were alienating Anbar's more moderate insurgents. Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-03-06 |
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