What’s Sahawa?, you might ask. It’s the Arabic word for awakening, and that’s been happening in Iraq, not only among the Sunnis in Anbar province, but now it seems that the Shiites are getting on board as well. The two men in the picture are Shiite leader Ammar Hakim (left) and Sunni sheik Abdul Sattar Abu Risha (right). On October 14, forty Shiite and Sunni leaders (including Hakim and Abu Risha) met in Ramadi, the birthplace of Sahawa, under the protection of the U.S. Army. Here’s where I read about this:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/10/a-shiite-awaken.html
Why isn’t the New York Times all over this important development. Well, it turns out they are … sort of. Here’s their report on the same meeting, starting in the fourth paragraph of an article with a slightly less optimistic headline: Iraqi Journalist Is Shot and Killed in Baghdad:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/15/world/middleeast/15iraq.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
(I guess the Old Gray Lady figured that if they buried this good news in a negative article, no one would notice.)
If the Shiite Sahawa takes off the way the Sunni Sahawa has, the Democrats are going to be in trouble (remember Harry Reid’s “The war is lost” remark back in February?). Faced with the politically unfortunate prospect of success in Iraq, they’re trying a new form of sabotage: alienate the Turks to the point that they cut off the major supply routes to our troops. But that’s another topic; I’ll try to post about that later.
Faced with the politically unfortunate prospect of success in Iraq, they’re [the Democrats] trying a new form of sabotage: alienate the Turks to the point that they cut off the major supply routes to our troops.
Good news! Speaker Pelosi is reconsidering this dangerous move:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c63d8768-7ce3-11dc-aee2-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
Bad news! The damage may have already been done:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/17/AR2007101700967.html?hpid=topnews
If this develops into a full-scale conflict in northern Iraq after we’ve made so much progress to curb the violence in other parts of Iraq, then I agree with Rush Limbaugh that we should start calling this “Pelosi’s War.”
Here’s an opinion piece by Michael Ledeen in the 10/20/07 Wall Street Journal that also points out the significance of the 10/14/07 meeting:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119283901152765565.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Never underestimate the power of grass roots. Once the regional leaders are on board with the Sahawa, the parliament will have no choice but to follow suit.
Here’s an interesting article that discusses some of the complexities of the struggle between Turkey and the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party – the Kurdish separatists in Turkey):
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/10/9F724E94-3DB0-4996-B9C7-D95D8222FDB7.html
Some of the factors in this equation are 1) economic interdependence between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan; 2) the prospect of the Iraqi Kurds aiding the Turks in routing the PKK for concessions such as recognizing Iraqi Kurdistan as a semi-autonomous region of a federal Iraq; and 3) U.S. influence (or lack thereof) over both the Turks and the Iraqi Kurds.
I wonder if any of these factors were considered when the Democrats voted the Armenian Genocide Resolution out of committee. Whether this action on the Democrats’ part was a deliberate attempt to disrupt supply lines to our troops in Iraq (sort of a back-door cutting off of funds to the war), or perhaps just a pathetic attempt to suck up to the Armenian-American community, the result was the same. It jeopardized whatever influence we might have in the conflict.
It appears that Sahawa is spreading now to Diyala province:
http://www.centcom.mil/sites/uscentcom2/Lists/Current%20Press%20Releases/DispForm.aspx?ID=5733
Sheiks from the Tamimi tribe (Sunni) and Tabouri tribe (Shi’ite) met on October 24 and signed a fellowship agreement vowing “that they will cooperate in identifying tribal members who are corrupt or harboring terrorists, stop mortar attacks and in-fighting between Sunni and Shia villages and work honestly together on solutions toward a better future.”