Jul
28
2008
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The Anbar Awakening I Witnessed |
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Written by JD Johannes
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Monday, 28 July 2008 |
There has been much made in the chattering classes about whether to credit the improvements in Iraq to the Troop Surge or the Anbar Awakening.
First off, I would like to point out that I was the first civillian to see the Anbar Awakening spread downstream along the Euphrates and see how it jumped the Euphrates to the river's North East bank.
Many correctly point out that the Awakening preceded the Surge.
The earliest reporting is from August 2006 in the Washington Post when a few Sheiks in Ramadi agreed to work with coalition forces in Ramadi.
The proximate cause stated in the reporting is Al Qaida's program of murdering Sheiks. Specifically the murder of a Sheik and Al Qaida's preventing a proper (read rapid) Muslim burial.
I arrived in Iraq in March of 2007 and first witnessed the Anbar Awakening in April when I embedded with the Third Battalion of the Sixth Marine Regiment near Habbaniyah--15 miles downstream on the Euphrates river from Ramadi.
I wrote about the Awakening's move out of Ramadi here .
At that time, no one knew what was happening around Habbaniyah. The Commanding Officer of 3/6, Lt. Col. James McGrath kept a lid on it because none of it was authorized by anyone--but he was running a tribal militia he had organized, funded and supplied.
The Awakening around Habbaniyah was not spontaneous--it required a lot of combat diplomacy by McGrath and his officers. McGrath and his Marines were not a 'surge' unit.
At the same time, further downstream, two branches of Abu Issa tribe were waging a fairly hot war against each other around Amariayah/Ferris.
The only coalition forces in the area were a Police Training Team.
But a month later a full Army Battalion moved in. The Surge arrived. The remaining resisting tribes flipped to the coalition.
Prior to the Surge if a full battalion was to move from one part of the Fallujah area to another--one key area would go uncovered.
But by late May the entire area was flooded with U.S. Forces.
A battalion in every population center and Marine Expeditionary Unit moving up to the Thartar lake region.
Never before had all the population centers been covered by a full battalion.
The Awakening spread that Spring like a wild fire--even the area North of Kharmah and the remainder of the Jumali tribe flipped to the coalition and Zaidon eventually saw the light because Marines and Soldiers became a constant presence.
There were no more whack-a-mole operations.
Without the Troop Surge, the Awakening sputters. It stops at Fallujah and south of the Kharmah river. It does not take roots in Amariyah/Ferris or Zaidon or Thartar.
Unlike most of the chattering experts--I saw the Awakening as it made its spread. I lived with the Sons of Anbar and the Marines, Paratroopers and Training Teams that held the hands of the tribesmen.
Without the Surge, the Awakening is not the Anbar Awakening--it is the Ramadi Awakening and there would be nothing like it in any other province.
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