Shaikh Sattar Killed in Bombing;
Anbar State of Emergency
Shaikh Sattar Abu Risha, leader of the Council for the Salvation of al-Anbar Province, has been killed by a bomb set at the entrance to his farm near Ramadi. Sawt al-Iraq says that a state of emergency has been declared in the province as a result. Bush met with him on the recent trip to a US base in al-Anbar and he was being held up as an American success story in finding tribal allies against the Salafi Jihadis that Washington styles "al-Qaeda."
The Bush adminstration has presented a lot of statistics on Iraq this week. Aljazeera English presents some others:
Labels: Iraq
posted by Juan Cole @ 9/13/2007 05:53:00 AM
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6 Comments:
And what shall our children call this bloody dance?Provided,of course,that our children are allowed to say anything.
I am at a loss.It appears that our political system is broken.How,short of insurrection,can we stop the continuation of this madness?
The fact that he was killed by a roadside bomb might suggest that his assassins weren't "al Qaeda," but rather "nationalist" -- for lack of a better word -- insurgents. The use of IEDs is not usually associated with AQI.
Furthermore, given that he was accompanied by only two bodyguards, a suicide attack could have been used with a fairly low degree risk involved.
If indeed this were to be seen as an attack by non-AQI insurgents, the spin around the Bush narrative of progress would come unwound. I suspect that the conflict in Anbar is not as simple as the Administration would have us believe. Rather than a social struggle between Iraqis and al Qaeda, the situation in Anbar should be understood as a struggle over various visions of Iraqi society, including a struggle pitting centralizing Baathist against traditional tribal regionalists.
I still can't figure out what the White House expected from al-Maliki. From the start he wanted an Iranian friendly theocracy and a Sunni free Baghdad. Although like Hakim that probably extends to all of Iraq. But why are they surprised that he's not interested in reBaathification and power sharing?
Realizing the stupidiocy of this pipe dream, Bush is now trying to switch sides. He very well may pull it off but based on past performance I have my doubts.
Tell me again why we just couldn't leave Saddam alone?
Thanks for posting this, Juan. It's a great report to listen to.
Unbelievable. We spend $300 million PER DAY in Iraq and we can only provide 2-6 hours per day of electricity and have "unreliable" drinking water?
The Angry Arab News Service mentioned the other day that this guy was kinda shady and not a great person to be giving a lot of weapons. As'ad also took note of Bush's "shit-eating grin" as opposed to Abu Risha's attitude.
Any comments on this fellow's background?
What happened to the September Archive
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