Operation 'Silly Codeword' continues, as always, to be in progress in the interests of Republican Party courage-challengedness. As always, there's a little whiff of blowback reported by the Anglo-Arabian Press Trust that, as often, gets re-echoed at Slogger City , where it is promoted to the honourary or brevet rank of an insider secret about the Brave New "Iraq":
| Operation Arrowhead Ripper, currently underway in Diyala, is joining the US Army and the Iraqi government forces in a battle against al-Qa‘ida and anti-US groups in the province, especially around the city of Ba‘quba. According to al-Hayat however, the US is also fighting side by side with Iraqi tribal militias who have chosen to side with the Americans in their fight against al-Qa‘ida; furthermore, Iraqi insurgent groups that are engaged in a battle against US forces may be joining hands with the Americans to combat the extremist group and the “Islamic State in Iraq.” The pan-Arab, London-based newspaper described a new form of cooperation between the US forces and local tribes and their militias. Al-Hayat said that the US tends to employ a “special Iraqi military unit, that it armed and trained” to support its operations in Shi'a area; and solicits help from the official Iraqi armed forces for operations in the Sunni regions, “but (the US) has lately been recruiting clans and armed (groups)” in its recent actions. The use of tribes by US forces, al-Hayat claimed, “is causing an acute conflict among tribes and armed groups.” In what concerns insurgent groups, the paper claimed that the “Brigades of the 1920 revolution,” which are responsible for hundreds of attacks against the US and British forces, but are also engaged in a bitter rivalry with al-Qa‘ida, have suffered a split when a wing from the movement elected to fight alongside the Americans against extremist Wahhabis. The armed group insists that it does not take part in the US-led anti-Qa‘ida operations in Ba‘quba and elsewhere, but “close sources” to the organization told al-Hayat that “one of the wings (of the 1920 Brigades) and tribal fighters have joined the American campaign.” The situation among tribes is far more complex, the paper said. US aid has made certain tribes (namely those associated with the US and the government) extremely powerful, and has given them quasi-control over large areas in Anbar and elsewhere. As a result, tribal competition and enmities are flaring. A rivalry has emerged between Sheikh ‘Abd al-Sattar Abu Risha, head of the pro-government “Anbar Salvation Council” and Sheikh ‘Ali Hatim al-Dulaimi, who is active in “the Anbar Awakening Council,” also an anti-Qa‘ida organization. Al-Hayat reported that al-Dulaimi accused Sheikh Abu Risha and his “Anbar Salvation Council” of “abusing his authority” and “employing excessive force against civilians, and using the police to perform thefts.” The paper said that ‘Abu Risha defended his measures, affirming that they are directed exclusively at al-Qa‘ida.” The paper quoted al-Dulaimi as saying that “(Abu Risha) fights al-Qa‘ida during the day and leads gangs of thieves during the night.” Al-Hayat opined that the situation could lead to “tribal confrontations” in Anbar if these conflicts were not resolved. |
Well, you see, Mr. Bones, it's like this: some of the local Sunnintern franchise out there in the happily neoliberated Land of Peace and Freedom are Awakeners and some of 'em are Saviours, some of 'em belong to "tribes" while others of 'em have formed kinship-baseless ad hoc "armed bands," rather comparable to those of the paleface Party invasionites. So, what with one thing and another, how should confrontations not eventuate?
If you take a really deep interest in the identity of indiscernibles, or maybe the indiscernibility of identicals, you might wonder with me exactly how the AAPT journalist gentry draw the line between an "organization" and one "wing" of an organization. Could if have anything to do with those slightly mysterious sounding "plurals of paucity," jumú‘ al-qilla, that Dr. Wright briefly alludes to at I 234b?
I recall vaguely that the Anglo-Saxon Laws of King Aethelhwaetefer laid it down that zero to six thugs are plain vanilla thugs, seven to twenty-nine thugs are a (robber) "band," whilst thirty to infinity thugs constitute an "army." That plan may have worked admirably back in Century II/VIII or III/IX, but nowadays there's the problem of how can anybody tell for sure from the website?
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| The use of tribes by US forces, al-Hayat claimed, “is causing an acute conflict among tribes and armed groups.” |
You might want to make a memorandum of that bit, Mr. Bones. The hysteron proteron is very, very characteristic of the Sunnintern and Sunnintern groupies, yet it is also endemic in the mentalité du Levant more generally. Poor Uncle Sam is forever being unfairly accused of creating such acute conflicts from scratch in order to "divide and rule." The fact of the matter appears to be that Levantines only notice how fragmented they have been all along after getting invasionized by culturally unaccountable extraterrestrials. "One touch of Dubya makes the whole [Semite] World kin," as it were, taking "kin" in Mr. Eugene O'Neil's sense, the people one loves best to squabble with. Also Dr. Johnson's sense, "The Irish, sir, are a fair people, they never speak well of one another." [1]
Why can't the Semites be more "unfair" -- more like the Scotch, converting themselves into a mutual assistance trust when invaded from Mars or Greater Texas rather than making every day a festival of intramural recrimination? Even at the Anglo-Arabian Press Trust it is taken for granted that increased rather than diminished ‘asabiyya is the normal and natural human reaction to outsiders meddlin'. They take it for granted, but somehow one scarcely ever catches them actually doing it.
But God knows best what that "somehow" is and how it works.
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[1] 'Tis tasteless to blow one's own horn, of course, yet facts are facts, and I believe it is a fact the we O's and Mac's have complained less about "divide and rule" in eight centuries than Semite World has in the last eight decades.
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