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Time to spin...
Quote:
Originally posted by Spanky
By Paul Tait
BAGHDAD (Reuters)
. . . Washington has also focused on the success of a strategy of helping Sunni Arab tribal sheikhs in the westerly Anbar province to form local police units to drive al Qaeda from their areas.
Anbar was once the most violent province in Iraq for U.S. troops and Iraqis, but is now relatively safe. U.S. commanders have since worked on adopting similar models elsewhere in Iraq, although the strategy has yet to be tried in major urban areas.
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Marc Lynch:
- After years of failed warfare against the Sunni insurgency, the US decided to talk with and then cooperate with "former" insurgents with a lot of American blood on their hands. They discovered that it worked (at least for the short term). It's ironic that the same people who currently most vigorously defend the "Anbar Model" of working with these "former insurgents" usually strongly oppose any serious dialogue with Syria or Iran. If there's one good thing which could come out of the current American Sunni strategy in Iraq, perhaps it will be the recognition that talking to one's enemies can sometimes have positive results.
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“It was fortunate that so few men acted according to moral principle, because it was so easy to get principles wrong, and a determined person acting on mistaken principles could really do some damage." - Larissa MacFarquhar
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