Word: tribalization
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...These are Iraqi security forces, so you don't want to undercut their ability to secure," Owens said. "What we don't want to do is go back to where the tribal piece here overrules the governance, because then we'll step back in time...
...each province is different in terms of its mix of tribalism and sectarianism. In predominately Shi'ite southern Iraq, tribal authority is weak these days. Militia leaders like Moqtada al-Sadr and religious figures such as Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani hold sway over sheiks. Diyala province is largely Sunni, like Anbar and Salahuddin, but not nearly as homogenous as those two western areas. And Baghdad, despite ferocious sectarian cleansing campaigns on both sides, remains a stronghold for both camps...
...government that's functional. You don't want to have tribes fighting without the sanction of the government." Owens estimates that there are over 12,000 Iraqi police foot soldiers at work against insurgents in Salahuddin, which is home to the volatile city of Samarra. U.S. forces have encouraged tribal leaders to enlist their followers in existing security force. Short of that, tribes should stay out of the fight, as far as Owens is concerned...
...Fallujah despite heavy fighting and high causalities by U.S. forces. "Right now there are no downsides to it," said Ambassador Lawrence Butler, who works on U.S. policy towards Iraq at the State Department in Washington. Butler said overall U.S. policy as of now aims to support the kind of tribal alliances U.S. forces have made in Anbar...
...Owens and some policymakers leery. Sheik Sittar, the Sunni Chieftain, has vowed to work with the central government in Baghdad led by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite partisan. But so far no meaningful cooperation between the two has emerged. And some fear that today's tribal alliances will become tomorrow's Sunni militias, bands of experienced and well-equipped fighters ready to attack Iraq's Shi'ite factions in a clash that could leave the country in open civil...