Our Latest Rent-a-Thuggish-Sheikh in Iraq

by emptywheel

I 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 the various Iraq reports, but I find myself morbidly fascinated by the photos and reports which have circulated in the Iraqi press about Bush's meeting in Anbar with the controversial head of the Anbar Salvation Council Sattar Abu Risha.   The pictures themselves speak volumes:  look at Bush's shit-eating grin and Abu Risha's detached contempt, 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 in the 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 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.

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, the largest tribal organization in Anbar, said that the Anbar Salvation Council would be dissolved because of growing internal dissatisfaction over its cooperation with U.S. soldiers and the behavior of the council's most prominent member, Abdul Sattar Abu Risha. Suleiman called Abu Risha a "traitor" who "sells his beliefs, his religion and his 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.

Comments

[Ishmael]

So, despite the Surge!, the vaunted "counter-insurgency" tactics of Betraeus (no typo!)and the additional deployment of tens of thousands of American troops, the real "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? "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.

[radiofreewill]

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.

[Boo Radley]

Just sickening.

Thanks emptywheel.

[Swopa]

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

I'm fairly sure someone read that quote to Dubya, and he responded, "Make sure I meet this guy -- sounds like my kind of fellow!"

[emptywheel]

Swopa

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

[leinie]

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

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

[bmaz]

Oh no, Sadaam was much more honorable, competent, predictable and capable than this guy.

[Dismayed]

And the cycle begins anew.

Just sickening. What a sad, sad nation we've become.

[Alyx]

The surge is just to try to keep the thugs in control so they "don't come over here". 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.

[noblindeye]

Sheikh Sattar probably did not want to be defiled by looking at the infidel DOG. Humiliating...

[Che Wolfowitz]

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.