cerulean
03-26-2003, 12:19 PM
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/03/26/tribes/index_np.html
Iraq's X factor: The tribes
More than three-quarters of Iraqis belong to tribes. Some of them have been paid off or threatened into backing Saddam -- but their real allegiance is to themselves.
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By Ferry Biedermann
March 26, 2003 | MOSUL/BAGHDAD -- More than three-quarters of Iraqis belong to tribes. Some of them have been paid off or threatened into backing Saddam -- but their real allegiance is to themselves.
Although it is difficult to be certain, the stiff resistance that U.S. and British troops have encountered in southern Iraq seems to be mainly the work of hard-core Baath-party faithful, not tribes. The Iraqi vice president said on Tuesday that "tribal militants" were destroying "enemy tanks" along the Euphrates, but such claims cannot be verified. There are pragmatic reasons the militants are more likely to be Baathist than tribal, however. Although they are nationalistic, many tribal leaders are ultimately more concerned with the interests of their tribes, not Saddam's regime. Adept at evading outright conflict, they can bring their tribes back over to what they think will be the winning side, which buys them a certain amount of immunity.
The British daily the Guardian reported last year that the CIA was spending millions on wooing the Iraqi tribes, just as it had in Afghanistan. This points up the important role the tribes play in Iraq -- although their wartime role will probably be less significant than the one they will play in the war's aftermath, when law and order has to be maintained and a new government structure created. . . .
You can click through the Day Pass ad on Salon to view the rest of the article. I have read that Western thinking fails to take into account the extent to which clans and tribes are still a pervasive factor in Arab society, including Iraq. (And of course tribes/clans are very significant in Pakistan and Afghanistan, non-Arab countries, as well.) Saddam has tribal loyalists from his own tribe.
Iraq's X factor: The tribes
More than three-quarters of Iraqis belong to tribes. Some of them have been paid off or threatened into backing Saddam -- but their real allegiance is to themselves.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Ferry Biedermann
March 26, 2003 | MOSUL/BAGHDAD -- More than three-quarters of Iraqis belong to tribes. Some of them have been paid off or threatened into backing Saddam -- but their real allegiance is to themselves.
Although it is difficult to be certain, the stiff resistance that U.S. and British troops have encountered in southern Iraq seems to be mainly the work of hard-core Baath-party faithful, not tribes. The Iraqi vice president said on Tuesday that "tribal militants" were destroying "enemy tanks" along the Euphrates, but such claims cannot be verified. There are pragmatic reasons the militants are more likely to be Baathist than tribal, however. Although they are nationalistic, many tribal leaders are ultimately more concerned with the interests of their tribes, not Saddam's regime. Adept at evading outright conflict, they can bring their tribes back over to what they think will be the winning side, which buys them a certain amount of immunity.
The British daily the Guardian reported last year that the CIA was spending millions on wooing the Iraqi tribes, just as it had in Afghanistan. This points up the important role the tribes play in Iraq -- although their wartime role will probably be less significant than the one they will play in the war's aftermath, when law and order has to be maintained and a new government structure created. . . .
You can click through the Day Pass ad on Salon to view the rest of the article. I have read that Western thinking fails to take into account the extent to which clans and tribes are still a pervasive factor in Arab society, including Iraq. (And of course tribes/clans are very significant in Pakistan and Afghanistan, non-Arab countries, as well.) Saddam has tribal loyalists from his own tribe.