Posted by
on Saturday, February 10, 2007 9:24:37 AM
I woke up this morning to some more good news out of Iraq:A telephone system might be unnecessary in the Iraqi tribal culture. Local news spreads faster when it runs word of mouth, from mother to daughter, uncle to nephew, or sheik to sheik. Because of this networking, when the Marines of 4th Platoon, Golf Company, 2/8 raided a house last night, they managed to hit a jackpot. They arrested someone who they had been looking for. More importantly, they also found someone who had been looking for them.
Under the command of Captain Mark Broekhuizen, Golf 2/8 had been making slow inroads in Saqliwiah (“sack-la-wee-ah”), a village on the northwestern outskirts of Fallujah. Finding Iraqi partners to step forward was tough, primarily because of an inability to locate and deal with the local Sheik. Lacking active cooperation from the Sheik and his people, it was difficult to gain the Intel necessary to drive both Islamic fundamentalist and Shia-oriented terror groups from the land.
“AQI is both feared and hated,” Capt Broekhuizen said, referring to Al Qaeda in Iraq. “They’ve been running a brutal terror campaign. No city leaders are left here who will take a leadership role.” Marines from Golf Company said they recently fished two bodies out of the local river: a man had been decapitated, and his 4-year old tied to his leg before both were thrown into the river and the little boy drowned. The killings were a product of Al Qaeda terror.
Marines say that they are making progress. Humanitarian missions, census operations, and security patrols have, according to the grunts, reduced the level of AQI violence by over 60% since they arrived in theater a few months ago. But absent local leadership, this progress cannot be sustained.
Last night, 4th Platoon won a small victory in the battle against AQI. Under the command of Lieutenant Anthony Friel, four Marine humvees on patrol spotted a white Toyota parked close to a house along the Euphrates River. Both the Toyota and the house looked suspicious. Quickly, the Marines surrounded the latter, and knocked on the door.
Inside the house were several young men (with dubious identification), women and children, as well as an older man. The squad leader, Corporal Jon Bates, and his Marines thoroughly searched the young Iraqis. After discovering one ID marked in English “Progressive Mosque Security,” a subsequent search of the young man's Toyota turned up sophisticated IED triggering devices, a pressure plate and an AK-47. Two were detained.
At the same time, another pair of locals were pushing a small skiff up the river, and seemed to be moving to land at the house. The Marines on the riverbank spotted an AK-47 in the boat’s bottom, and they fired a pyrotechnic flare. The locals turned the boat around and fled downriver. The Marines chose not to pursue.
As it turned out, the older gentleman was the real prize. He was Sheik “X”, the local Okhash tribal elder, and he was fully aware of how the Marines and Sheiks were cooperating in rebuilding Ramadi thirty miles west (ON Point reported from Ramadi last week). Having tribal connections in the Ramadi area, Sheik X said that he wanted to use it as a model for Marine assistance to drive AQI and the others from his city. He said that he had been “biding his time” before contacting them.
Calmly, the Sheik watched as the Marines detained the two young men in the house, volunteering that if they were “bad guys” he was happy to see them go. “You and I are going to find a way to work together to make this area better,” he told Lt Friel, “like Ramadi.” The Sheik added that it was “Iranians and foreigners” who were destabilizing his tribal area. “Iranians are forcing out the doctors and teachers. Soon this town will look like Afghanistan.”
He invited the Lieutenant and others to share his dinner, where the discussions and negotiations continued. Sheik X wants the “same deal” as the Marines and Sheiks cut in Ramadi. In that area, the Marines handle overall security, and permit the locals and tribal elders a degree of freedom to handle local security.
The Sheik repeatedly emphasized his interest in working with the Marines in order to protect his tribe against the Shia. Next to halting AQI’s brutal terror campaign against the Sunni tribes, the largest worry in Anbar Province is that Shia – a generic term ranging from Iranians to the Prime Minister Maliki’s government in Baghdad – will stamp out the Sunni in Anbar.
Ah, but according to the barking moonbats and the Left in congress, this war is over, and we have lost. Uh-huh. A daily reminder not to buy into the pessimism their side feeds off of. And speaking of pessimism, Allah has something that might make you rethink the idea of feeding those moonbats.Marcie