Tribal Assassination. Guest Post by "Irack Observer":

Marc Lynch has a terrific post on the implications of the murder of Abd al-Sattar Abu Risha, the head of the Anbar Salvation Council and the poster-child for surge proponents of success in forging cooperative relations with Sunni tribes to go after al Qaeda in Iraq. Go read it here. This is terrible for the White House and the current strategy. Not only is this the guy Bush (in)famously shook hands with during his recent stop in Anbar, but if it turns out that he was killed either by other tribal leaders or groups associated with the government, the entire narrative of "the tribes" (which suggests a unified entity) or bottom-up "reconciliation" will collapse like a house of cards.

"Irack observer" is an academic and practitioner who has conducted research on the U.S. military and the Iraq war, has travelled to Iraq, and seeks to inform the ongoing debate. He can be reached at irackobserver@gmail.com

Posted by Irack Observer at September 13, 2007 08:18 AM