Our Latest Rent-a-Thuggish-Sheikh in Iraq

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Bush_and_risha_2I have little wisdom to add to this Abu Aardvark post, but I wanted to make sure people saw it:

It’s kind of lost in the shuffle of the coming battle over thevarious Iraq reports, but I find myself morbidly fascinated by thephotos and reports which have circulated in the Iraqi press aboutBush’s meeting in Anbar with the controversial head of the AnbarSalvation Council Sattar Abu Risha.   The pictures themselves speakvolumes:  look at Bush’s shit-eating grin and Abu Risha’s detachedcontempt, and figure out which is the supplicant in this scenario. 

An hour with Bush was really quite a coup for Sattar Abu Risha.   The head of the Anbar Salvation Council has a rather unsavory reputation as one of the shadiest figures inthe Sunni community, and as recently as June was reportedly on his way out.  As a report in Time described him,

Sheikh Sattar, whose tribe is notorious for highway banditry, is alsobuilding a personal militia, loyal not to the Iraqi government but onlyto him. Other tribes — even those who want no truck with terrorists —complain they are being forced to kowtow to him. Those who refuse riskbeing branded as friends of al-Qaeda and tossed in jail, or worse. InBaghdad, government delight at the Anbar Front’s impact on al-Qaeda istempered by concern that the Marines have unwittingly turned SheikhSattar into a warlord who will turn the province into his personalfiefdom.

In June, Abu Risha’s position in the Anbar Salvation Council came under a fairly intense internal challenge.  As the Washington Post reported at the time, 

Ali Hatem Ali Suleiman, 35, a leader of the Dulaim confederation, thelargest tribal organization in Anbar, said that the Anbar SalvationCouncil would be dissolved because of growing internal dissatisfactionover its cooperation with U.S. soldiers and the behavior of thecouncil’s most prominent member, Abdul Sattar Abu Risha. Suleimancalled Abu Risha a "traitor" who "sells his beliefs, his religion andhis people for money."

That’s our guy.  That’s the pillar of America’s Sunni strategy, and a key player in Fred Kagan’s fantasy life.

The Administration has already played a bait and switch by pointing to growing Sunni opposition to Al Qaeda Iraq in Anbar as proof of the surge’s success, rather than real the political progress in Baghdad that surge backers promised. But if that "progress" in Anbar comes with the price tag of these kinds of bedfellows, it even further diminishes their claims.

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  1. Ishmael says:

    So, despite the Surge!, the vaunted â€counter-insurgency†tactics of Betraeus (no typo!)and the additional deployment of tens of thousands of American troops, the real â€plan†for security in Iraq is to dust-off the Negroponte Central American death squad gambit and find the most loathsome, brutal and moneyhungry mofo around to bring part of the country to heel? â€Kickin’ ass†indeed Shrub! If he passes the audition, maybe Shrub could make him dictator and have him start a war against Iran, just like Rummy set up for Reagan in the 80s. Cheney’s partyin’ like its 1985.

  2. radiofreewill says:

    If a picture says a thousand words, then a few of them for that one would be:

    ‘Yukking it up’ over the End of Centralized Federal Government in Iraq.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Abdul Sattar Abu Risha. Suleiman called Abu Risha a â€traitor†who â€sells his beliefs, his religion and his people for money.â€

    I’m fairly sure someone read that quote to Dubya, and he responded, â€Make sure I meet this guy — sounds like my kind of fellow!â€

  5. emptywheel says:

    Swopa

    That would explain Bush’s sickening smile. It’s been a while since he met a fellow traveler.

  6. leinie says:

    So they’ve found their new brutal dictator, have they? The guy that will bring stability so the US can leave, but will be â€partnered†in the oil revenues. Remember, Saddam was once our kind of guy, too.

    I’m so sickened at what we’ve done.

  9. Alyx says:

    The surge is just to try to keep the thugs in control so they â€don’t come over hereâ€. I really feel sorry for the troops…what lambs to the slaughter they have become. They really should have thought this whole(ly) war out completely from the start. But it’s too late now, it has become a quagmire. We need some smart thinking and plans now to try to have the least amount of casualties but I don’t see a bright future for a long long long time in all this mess.

  11. Che Wolfowitz says:

    I find this entire thing utterly disgusting. I am, indeed, ashamed.
    But I’m not ashamed of George W. Bush. Or Abu Risha. Or the Iraq war. In fact, I’m proud of these things; what we’ve done, what we’re doing. Certainly, errors have been made, but these are minor in comparison to what we’ve delivered. Democracy; Liberty; Welfare. Abu Risha was not another Saddam; he was a tribal leader who fought and, tragically, died for his belief that Iraq would not fall to our common enemy, al-Qaeda.
    So please, spare the ridiculous criticism for someone like Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who killed Americans, Britain’s and Iraqi’s on a daily basis as leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
    And, in point of fact, it was Abu Risha and his men who killed him.