Karl Vick of the Washington Post reports:
BAGHDAD, Oct. 12 — Local insurgents in the city of Fallujah are turning against the foreign fighters who have been their allies in the rebellion that has held the U.S. military at bay in parts of Iraq’s Sunni Muslim heartland, according to Fallujah residents, insurgent leaders and Iraqi and U.S. officials.
Relations are deteriorating as local fighters negotiate to avoid a U.S.-led military offensive against Fallujah, while foreign fighters press to attack Americans and their Iraqi supporters. The disputes have spilled over into harsh words and sporadic violence, with Fallujans killing at least five foreign Arabs in recent weeks, according to witnesses.
[Read the rest]It sound like real progress is being made by the Iraqi government, especially in the hearts and minds department. One would guess that the Iraqi government has told local militias that they will have a seat at the table of local power if they lay down their weapons. The last barrier appears to be the foreign jihadists who want no part of a new Iraq. From the sounds of it the natives have turned on them, and it’s only a matter of time until they are removed – one way or another.
One could only hope.
Whether or not this ultimately leads local insurgents to lay down their arms, it does suggest that they have very different strategic goals from Al Qaeda and its cognates. The locals want power, the foreigners (be they Al Qaeda Sunnis or Iranian stooges) want more chaos that will pin down the United States and frustrate its strategic objectives in the region. We can do business with guys who merely want power. And it means that al Qaeda, once again, is failing to achieve its strategic advantage.
Obviously Karl Rove is behind this, somehow.
😉
Iraq for Iraqis. We liberated them from Saddam so they could join the civilized nations. I’m just surprised it’s taken the populace this long to tire of the foreign influences which are working against the interests of the Iraqi people.
If I were a foreign jihadist, I’d start watching my back very closely. Once the Iraqis turn en masse against the jihadists, it’ll get ugly.
Once the Iraqis turn en masse against the jihadists, it’ll get ugly.
Yes, but in a beautiful way.
Sorry, but when it comes to terrorists, I’m a little bloodthirsty.
Interesting news and good to hear especially if it is true. Assuming it is true, does that mean that we can distinguish between domestic insurgents and foreign terrorists? Any views?
James, the answer to whether we can distinguish local bad guys from foreign bad guys is no, not American forces. However, the Iraqis can. In a country still mainly organised by tribe and clan it’s not particularly difficult for local people to pick out strangers. People tend to live among their tribes. Where an American GI can’t pick out the wrong accent, an Iraqi can. Where an American doesn’t know who lived in that town last year an Iraqi knows who someone’s great grandfather and second cousins, twice removed are.
That’s why the training of local Iraqi Police and military forces is so durned important.
It’s also why progress in a specific area will be nonexistant for so long and then suddenly snowball.
Sam over at http://hammorabi.blogspot.com/ reported on this last week. It seems that the Iraqi blogs are ahead of the MSM yet again.
But, but, but . . . Sully says it’s a quagmire. I can’t decide, who do i believe, the guy who links to Kos, or reports of what is actually happening? I just don’t know.
Local insurgents in the city of Fallujah are turning against the foreign fighters who have been their allies…
I wonder exactly how accurate this representation is. Politically-motivated doomsayers in the Media have been insisting that the insurgency is popular and spreading. Things are getting worse, our enemies are freedom fighters, it’s a quagmire. Now, as the truth is about to be revealed on the ground, the reporter ‘discovers’ that Fallujans are ‘turning against’ their allies.
The current incidents seem more in line with an alternative analysis, that Baathists with piles of weapons and leftover oil-for-food money had allied themselves with pre-Saddam criminal gangs. Foreign fighters added to the reign of terror. Local residents have cooperated with the Coalition by supplying intelligence, to rid themselves of these parasites and predators.
Now as the final confrontation nears, we are seeing where the real alliances have been all along, and reporters who have misreported are writing about ‘deteriorating’ relations and ‘disputes’ so as to cover themselves after the fact.
– Baghdad Officials have just issued a direct warning to Fallujah to give up Abu Musab Zarqawi “or face the consequences”…(FOX news)…
– Taking this lunitic down would be game, set, and match for Iraq and Bush, if he hasn’t already fled the country…A tip off will be if the car bombing’s, kidnapping’s, and beheading’s drop off in the coming weeks…..
– Apparently Pres. Bush is not going to wait until after the election to move on the “quagmire” in Iraq, as was suggested by the left recently….”Wishful thinking”….
– I think the effects of the free elections in Afghanistan are already starting to be felt throughout the Arab world….
– Coupled with the upsurge in Iraqi/American force attacks and Iraqi citizens disenchantment with the insurgents its hard to see how Bush will lose the election with the good things that seem to be happening for his administration…
– Afghan free elections successful
– Howard wins in Australia
– Kerry’s campaign goes over the line in several ways in the public eye..
– Kerry’s discharge and post war activities continue to dog him…
– Iraq seems to be rapidly coming around
– Bush got his mojo on in the 2nd debate…
– The MSM’s liberal bias is becoming known even to the most un-involved voters…
This piece is a WaPo trick, and I wrote a longish post explaining why on Bill Quick’s site. I’m not if it’s proper etiquette to paste it here so I’ll just post this link to Bill’s thread and you can read it if you’re interested.
http://www.dailypundit.com/archives/015549.php#057034