Anbar Tribes turn back al-Qaeda

Independent of American military forces, tribes in Iraq have organized to defeat foreign invaders in their lands. Tribal leaders in Iraq’s Anbar Province agreed in September 2006 to raise a tribal force of 30,000 fighters to take on foreign fighters that had moved to take over their territories with an eye to establishing an independent caliphate. What 130,000 American military forces and another 100,000 mercenary forces could not achieve in Iraq in four years, Fourth World nations are themselves achieving in just a few months.

The September 11, 2007 New York Times editorial notes: The main success General Petraeus cited was in the previously all-but-lost Anbar Province where local sheiks, having decided that they hate Al Qaeda more than they hate the United States, have joined forces with American troops to combat insurgents. That development — which may be ephemeral — was not a goal of the surge and surprised American officials. To claim it as a success of the troop buildup is, to be generous, disingenuous. American military and diplomatic leaders appearing before United States Congressional committees on 10 and 11 September in Washington, D.C. claimed for themselves the success achieved by these Fourth World nations. Indeed, instead of succeeding in Iraq, the American military forces are themselves a foreign irritant that has failed to defeat an estimated 20,000 Iraqi insurgents and what appears to be no more than 2,000 forces organized by the non-governmental organization al-Qaeda. It appears that Fourth World nations are the key to the future stabilization of Iraq.

As this column argued in an earlier discussion of the American invasion of Afghanistan the Fourth World nations themselves are a better defense against foreign invaders and groups of al Qaeda fighters than foreign American troops that will be regarded as invaders and occupiers themselves. When the Americans begin to understand that Fourth World nations are strong defenders of their own soil and people against foreign invasion, the sooner will Americans pull back from military adventures. Americans and other states’ governments concerned about “their interests inside other countries” should fully understand the Fourth World nations inside those countries before they consider invasion. They may become the targets of Fourth World nation defensive engagements just as other foreigners.

Negotiate with Fourth World nations is the appropriate approach if foreign states’ governments seek to protect their interests inside another country. America’s interest in Iraq is clearly oil. Notice that the Kurds have already stabilized the necessary administrative structures for the production of oil while the American created “federal government.” has not. Tribes in Anbar have already begun to force out foreign invaders in their territories when the Americans could not. There is a message in the success of Fourth World nations.

(c) 2007 Center for World Indigenous Studies