"I wish we could do in all the provinces of Iraq what we did in Anbar, which is that the people and the government come together," he said just three days after Bush made a surprise stopover at an airbase just 48 kilometres (30 miles) west of Ramadi.
Bush had said during his lightning visit that a reduction in US combat troops in Iraq was possible because of progress on the security front in Anbar.
He had shaken hands with the sheikh and praised the Anbar Awakening movement, a coalition of some 25 tribes which came together in September last year and pledged to fight Al-Qaeda militants by forming their own paramilitary units and sending recruits to the local police force.
Apparently, Sheikh Reesha was killed within the supposedly safe confines of his turf. AFP reports that he'd gotten out of his car to assist a handicapped person, then shortly after he returned to the car, the car bomb exploded.
RICK ROWLEY: ... The papers are full of stories about a sheikh from Anbar who's changed the course of the war in favor of the Americans. Abu Risha's lieutenants have agreed to bring to us their stronghold in Ramadi, but we've been unable to speak with Abu Risha directly, and our contacts in Amman have discouraging opinions about his movement.
Moyad Abu Subiah has written about the resistance in Anbar since the war began.
MOYAD ABU SUBIAH: [translated] I've never heard of anyone named Sattar Abu Risha. Maybe there is a Sattar Abu Risha. Maybe there are many Sattar Abu Rishas.
RICK ROWLEY: Moyad said that Abu Risha was a ghost, a name that the Americans had attached to a public relations campaign. But that evening we finally spoke to the ghost. Abu Risha was not in Ramadi after all. He was right here in Amman behind elaborate security in the top floor of the Marriott Hotel.
SHEIKH SATTAR ABU RISHA: [translated] If you want to introduce me, I am head of the Iraq Awakening Council, leader of all the Iraqi Arab Tribes. I am real. I am not a ghost. And to the terrorists, I say that I will be in Anbar in five days, and if they want to see me, I am ready for them.
RICK ROWLEY: Abu Risha claims that he has secured most of Anbar province, a truly amazing victory. Anbar is the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq. More US soldiers have died there than in any other province. Much of Anbar has been under the direct control of insurgents since 2004. And in Anbar's most famous town, Fallujah, two all-out invasions, dozens of air strikes, tens of thousands of arrests and three years of curfews and continuous American raids have not ended resistance.
But the Americans claim that their alliance with Abu Risha now has turned the tide in Anbar. Attacks have dropped, roads have reopened, and al-Qaeda is retreating. Abu Risha has become a symbol of American success, and his alliance has become their template for fighting the insurgency everywhere in the country. They call this new strategy "reconciliation."-
The question is, will this assassination help or hurt the USA? Will Iraqi leaders become more determined to fight Al Qaeda, or will they respond with fear or capitulation to the Al Qaeda efforts and message?
One thing is likely. It will cost the USA more to "buy" the support of the local leaders. Democracy Now's report described how Petraeus had achieved success so far, using lots of cash;
RICK ROWLEY: While we were embedded with the Americans, we saw American military commanders hand wads of cash to tribal militias. And when he says that they are facilitating their integration into the country's security forces, what he means is they're pressuring Iraq's government to incorporate these militias wholesale into the police forces. In fact, that's one of the promises that these tribes are given, that after working with the Americans for a few months, they'll become Iraqi police, be armed by the Iraqi state and be put on regular payroll. So it's completely disingenuous, what he's saying.
Will the success of Petraeus surge strategy, apparently highly dependent upon this one man, fall apart with his death? Will the progress that was built continue? We must hope for the best. But the report and observations by Rick Rowley suggest that the strategy was a fragile one, built on cash payoffs, to start with. That does not bode well.
We reported yesterday that not all of Petraeus bosses like and respect him with the adulation the members of congress portrayed during his hearings. According to an IPS report,
"Petraeus's superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (CENTCOM), derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad last March, according to Pentagon sources familiar with reports of the meeting.
Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chickenshit" and added, "I hate people like that", the sources say. That remark reportedly came after Petraeus began the meeting by making remarks that Fallon interpreted as trying to ingratiate himself with a superior."
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