Iraqi highways are safer?

[Ace Pace]

Somewhat suprising. I Guess I shouldn't be suprised that the U.S. army would actually make some roads a priority.

Only six months ago, many Iraqi travelers considered it a suicidal risk to take the insurgent-controlled desert highway that stretches from Baghdad to neighboring Syria and Jordan.

But now Iraqi driver Jamal says the Sunni Islamist al Qaeda insurgents who used to abduct and execute his Shi'ite passengers before robbing him and fellow Sunnis are virtually a thing of the past.

"A lot more people are using this road these days," said Jamal as he waited for passengers to fill his seven-seater vehicle as he prepared to go to Syria.

"Some are visibly reluctant, but you will always hear them admit at the border how safe it was going through the countless checkpoints with no gunmen in sight."

Security along the Anbar highway has been transformed by the emergence of a tribal alliance of Sunni sheikhs and their fighters who have managed to suppress Anbar's volatile insurgency -- after repeated failures by Washington and Baghdad.

Iraqis had long moaned about the insecurity of the highway, which heads west out of Baghdad into the Sunni Muslim province of Anbar towards Jordan and Syria.

For Shi'ites travelling through Anbar, the risk increased dramatically after the bombing of a Shi'ite mosque in Samarra in February 2006 triggered a wave of sectarian bloodletting.

But travelling the 10-hour journey by bus through the vast desert to Amman costs as little as $35, and few travelers could afford the alternative -- airline tickets for the short return trip by plane can cost up to $900.

[snip]

TRIBAL "AWAKENING"

Although some cases of sectarian killings and highway robberies are still reported, violence has fallen sharply since the tribal alliance took the initiative earlier this year.

The alliance, called "The Awakening", declared war against al Qaeda in Iraq after the militants had alienated many of the Anbar population by their indiscriminate killings of locals.

U.S. President George W. Bush visited Anbar earlier this month in a symbolic trip aimed at highlighting its new sense of stability.

More than 20,000 policemen, most of them local, provide security for the province now largely free of al Qaeda.

[K. A. Pital]

Essentially, it's not Bush's merit - but he travels there to congratulate himself on someone else's success.

[PainRack]

Essentially, it's not Bush's merit - but he travels there to congratulate himself on someone else's success.

Still, it is something noteworthy and him travelling there does lend some political weight to the alliance guaranteeing security there.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Essentially, it's not Bush's merit - but he travels there to congratulate himself on someone else's success.

Still, it is something noteworthy and him travelling there does lend some political weight to the alliance guaranteeing security there.

What political weight? The alliance only exists out of convenience. When it becomes not a convenience, the US might end up fighting them again. The US has almost no credibility with the Iraqis, and the only reason some Iraqis might want them to stay, is just so that there's someone else to serve as the resident punching bag.

And while that happens, rumblings on Capitol Hill continue about removing the current lame duck Iraqi Prime Minister, who's authority is that of a city state.

If by anything, this charade is targeted at the audience in the US, and not at the Iraqis.

[Adrian Laguna]

And this is why when the British Empire ran the world, they often used existing power structures to establish control of any particular region. It works, they get the job done.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

And this is why when the British Empire ran the world, they often used existing power structures to establish control of any particular region. It works, they get the job done.

That didn't quite work in India though. They ended up fighting a war with one of the Indian shahs. The Duke of Wellington earned some of his strips in that battle.

[PainRack]

What political weight? The alliance only exists out of convenience. When it becomes not a convenience, the US might end up fighting them again. The US has almost no credibility with the Iraqis, and the only reason some Iraqis might want them to stay, is just so that there's someone else to serve as the resident punching bag.

Unfortunately, that is the way coalitions politics play out.You play with those whoose interests are aligned with yours, even when your goals are different. Its the art of the diplomat who play it well.