Word: tribal
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...restive areas like the northern province of Diyala. The specter of renewed sectarian strife is also very real: a tenuous truce between Iraq's various communities will be tested early next month, when the U.S. transfers command authority over the so-called Awakening or Sahwa councils (the Sunni tribal groups that fought al-Qaeda) to the predominantly Shi'ite central government. Neither side trusts the other. Tensions between Arabs and Kurds are also on the rise in several northern districts of Iraq, as well as between al-Maliki and his Kurdish coalition partners in Baghdad. Provincial elections...
During his earlier tours in Iraq, Odierno was known for his aggressive tactics rooting out insurgents. While critics at the time accused him of alienating Iraqi civilians in the process, he won praise under Petraeus for taking a more nuanced tack, particularly in dealing with Sunni tribal leaders. In 2003, Odierno was commander of the 4th Infantry Division, which found and captured Saddam Hussein in his underground bunker...
Whatever the military challenges, the U.S. Administration has continued its quiet cultivation of Kayani, who has acted more aggressively against insurgents in recent months, with full-scale aerial assaults. On Aug. 6 he launched a massive operation in Bajaur tribal agency, an insurgent-ridden area along the border. But the exercise was a lesson in being careful what you wish for. Pakistan's army was built to fight a conventional war with India and is ill equipped to handle violence at home. Three weeks of air strikes forced more than 260,000 residents to flee the region; many ended...
Will anything work? "The military has pursued two bad policies in the tribal areas--appeasement and excessive use of force," says Samina Ahmed, South Asia project director for the International Crisis Group. "Either way, all they have achieved is empowering the militants, helping them in recruitment and in obtaining funding." She laments the lack of a coherent strategy. "Militaries are blunt instruments; they are not good at counterinsurgency," she says. "The police would be a far more effective instrument, but there is no coordination between the military and the civilian government, so political reform and economic development--essential elements...
...long-term effort to quell extremism in the tribal areas will require even more. Pakistan needs to bring schools, jobs, roads, health care, courts and the rule of law to a populace that has rarely seen government attention. Unemployment among the population of 3.5 million hovers around 70%. Two-thirds live in poverty. Only 6% of its people can read, and for women, the figure is less than 1%. Yet neither Pakistan nor the U.S. appears to have a comprehensive strategy for the area. A top expert on Pakistan recently visited a colleague at the White House who, the expert...