March 14, 2007

LA Times Prints Good News From Iraq

From the LA Times (print headline is quoted - online headline is different):

A stroll, not a patrol, for U.S. general

...Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki visited with regional sheiks, his first stop here since becoming prime minister 10 months ago and part of a campaign to ensure loyalty from powerful Sunnis who once harbored insurgents.

The campaign gained momentum last fall when a group of sheiks from across the western province of Al Anbar, whose capital is Ramadi, met with Maliki in Baghdad.

Just what led to the sheiks' decision to work with the U.S.-backed, Shiite Muslim-dominated government after years of supporting Sunni insurgents depends on whom you ask.

U.S. military officials say the sheiks finally realized that by boycotting the December 2005 elections that eventually brought Maliki to power and refusing to be a part of his government, they were missing out on valuable economic opportunities for their cities and towns.

"This is part of joining the process," said the commander of multinational forces in this region, Marine Maj. Gen. Walter E. Gaskin. "They realize that if they had taken part in the elections, well, perhaps some of these sheiks would be the governor or the provincial chairman."

Sunni leaders here have another version: They simply got fed up with Al Qaeda in Iraq's brutality. They came to see the group, which touts itself as an Islamic force repelling foreign occupiers, as a terrorist organization hell-bent on taking over their lives, even killing innocent civilians.

Maj. Shabah Ahmed, an Iraqi army officer in Ramadi, said the turning point for him, and for many Ramadi residents, came a little more than a year ago, when a suicide bomber walked into an abandoned glass factory that was being used as a police recruiting station and detonated his explosive vest, killing scores of young men.

"That's when we realized that these people don't distinguish between the sons of our city and the soldiers," Ahmed said. "They just have an agenda to destroy."

Whatever the reason, U.S. military officials in Ramadi say the switch has been crucial to enabling U.S. and Iraqi forces to make headway here after years of battling to drive out the Al Qaeda in Iraq militants.

...Sheik Abdul-Sattar abu Risha, the head of the council, later told journalists that tribal leaders had turned toward the government and the United States because Al Qaeda in Iraq "was killing everyone."

To Petraeus, he said, "All of Anbar is with you."

The Times has the story on a back page of the A section -- but I'm glad to see them printing good news from Iraq.