Harith al-Dari Sunni tribal leader
killed by al Qaeda
Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/GETTY

Killed tribal leader caused locals to fight back!

You know the White House is desperately searching for reasons to spin the surge when Tony Snow states that the increase in violence is a measure of success due to the fact that whenever security tightens, violence goes up. Well, they are also declaring the surge a success in the al Anbar province where the Sunni’s apparently are turning against the al Qaeda types and running them out of town. Of course, Bush wants you to think that it’s because of our surge efforts that this is happening. But actually it has nothing to do with our increase in troop strength but instead, it has all to do with sex. Yes, you know that thing that makes the world go round. So, you may be asking what does sex have to do with war?

According to an article in the Austin American Statesman, National Security Specialist, Austin Bay, said we ought to be thinking about using cultural anthropologists as a weapon in the War on Terror. Bay says that knowing your enemy’s myths and marriage mores as well as his political goals and military capabilities, is just as important as military tactics. The situation in al Anbar provides a classic case study of aligning political and cultural considerations with combat security goals, but it had nothing to do with the use of force.

Yet of course, we spin it so that it appears that it does. According to a May news account, the Chicago Tribune, reports:

By all accounts, the results in Anbar have been impressive: Where barely 200 police officers had served in Ramadi, the provincial capital, last summer, now there are more than 8,000. The number of attacks on U.S. forces dropped from 108 a week last year to seven during the first week of May.

Last week, President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki seized on the turn of events in Anbar as a sign of hope for Iraq.

An Iraqi soldier from 2nd Brigade, 7th Iraqi Army Division, preparing to
replace American forces.   |   Photo by Staff Sgt. Jim Goodwin

So what’s really behind this sign of hope? Well, as you know, there’s always more to the spin, and it has more to do with women and tribal traditions than with any surge efforts. According to a podcast on pajamasmedia.com called the Blog Week in Review, Austin Bay interviews Dr. David Kilcullen who serves as Gen. Petraeus’s chief adviser on counter-insurgency warfare. In the interview, Dr. Kilcullen says “al Qaeda botched it in al Anbar big time”.

Apparently what happened is that al Qaeda basically went to their tribal allies, the Sunnis in al Anbar, and asked for their daughters or sisters in marriage. Well, what’s a man to do when there are no available women and you’re an out of town terrorist? But as tribal custom dictates, they don’t just give their women to anybody, especially outsiders.




Of course, the radical al Qaeda types who promote a strict interpretation of the Koran weren’t about to be overruled by tribal custom. Therefore, the only come back that the al Qaeda men could come up with was that their “no” was basically, according to the Koran, a refusal that was ignorant and ungodly. So, they killed the tribal leader. (Can you believe this?) The whole thing escalated from there. And, voila, you have a turnaround in al Anbar.

The lesson from this is, again, there really is no military solution in Iraq when you have irrational, religious factions killing each other. I say that it is about time we have someone like Dr. Kilcullen. He draws his knowledge from his background as a former Australian infantry officer. But more importantly, he is thoroughly versed in the cultural and historical contexts that shape people’s perceptions and influences their opinions. What he does is basically assess the cultural implications of military operations. Where was he when we needed him back before we invaded Iraq?

What I don’t understand is that this should be basic War 101 in which our military leaders should be able to recite chapter and verse from The Art of War, the 2,300-year-old treatise by Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu. Sun Tzu warned, “If you know yourself but not your enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.” Boy, is that ever true in Iraq. When will we ever learn?