Reply #26: Being Careful of Your Friends in Iraq

[FarCenter]

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1627400,00.html

Being Careful of Your Friends in Iraq

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But that's only part of the picture. Sheikh Sattar, whose tribe is notorious for highway banditry, is also building a personal militia, loyal not to the Iraqi government but only to him. Other tribes — even those who want no truck with terrorists — complain they are being forced to kowtow to him. Those who refuse risk being branded as friends of al-Qaeda and tossed in jail, or worse. In Baghdad, government delight at the Anbar Front's impact on al-Qaeda is tempered by concern that the Marines have unwittingly turned Sheikh Sattar into a warlord who will turn the province into his personal fiefdom.
As useful as they can be in the short term, alliances with tribal or insurgent groups tend to be highly fluid and unstable. Some of the tribes fighting alongside the Marines today were once swearing loyalty to al-Qaeda and gleefully killing Americans. They can turn again. A senior Iraqi commander told TIME of his great fear that, after the Americans leave, the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad would try to impose some degree of control over the Anbar tribes, sparking an armed revolt. "When that happens, the tribes will turn to anybody who's willing to help them fight against the Shi'ites," the commander said. "And guess who will be at the front of the queue?" Some American commanders have expressed similar concerns.

After all, it's not just the U.S. that can regard yesterday's enemy as today's friend.