I read this quote on Michael J. Totten.
Sheikh Sattar Abu Risha, leader of the Iraq’s Anbar Salvation Council before he was murdered by a car bomb in front of his house in late 2007, summed up the Anbar Awakening movement in a few concise sentences to Johns Hopkins University Professor Fouad Ajami. “Our American friends had not understood us when they came,” he said. “They were proud, stubborn people and so were we. They worked with the opportunists, now they have turned to the tribes, and this is as it should be. The tribes hate religious parties and religious fakers.”
The Americans have an attitude, and have had for some time. It goes along the lines of “we’re here now, every thing’s fine”. I guess that comes from turning up late to two world wars, after the plans for victory have been made, and not screwing them up too much.
Ok, so that’s a bit harsh. The US did a good job in the pacific, admired even by the Brits.
But you get that idea in a lot of movies: the Americans turn up, gun ho, and start blasting everything in sight. Massive firepower, technology etc, and they sort things out quickly and not particularly elegantly.
But in Iraq, they found that that wasn’t enough. And if what I’m reading is anything to go by, they’re actually learning how to do what many other nations have had to do for a while - be diplomatic and work with the locals.
So it’s quite possible that Iraq may be the best thing that the Americans ever got into. I wonder if losing 4000 men in Iraq will help them learn skills that’ll save 10,000 in another conflict.
I guess we’ll see.
