Al Qaeda loses culture clash and the battles

Claude Salhani:

The defeat of al Qaeda by Sunni tribesmen in Iraq's Anbar Province and of an al Qaeda-backed militia called Fatah al-Islam in North Lebanon's Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp represents two of the most serious blows to the Islamist movement since the declaration of war on terrorism.

As in Iraq where the Sunnis proved al Qaeda's vulnerability, so too has the Lebanese army shown that domestic resolve can defeat attempts by the Islamists to graft themselves onto other cultures, regardless of their similarities in religion, language or nationality.

What brought about the rejection of the Islamists in Iraq and in Lebanon was their attempted meddling in domestic affairs. In both cases the Islamists miscalculated domestic reaction suffered the consequences of their actions.

In Anbar Province, formerly a bastion of Saddam Hussein's rule and until recently considered the most dangerous place in Iraq for U.S. forces, it was not the surge of some additional 30,000 U.S. fighting troops which brought about the demise of al Qaeda. Rather it was the intervention of Sunni tribesmen.

The Sunni revolt against their one-time allies in the fight against the U.S. occupation of Iraq came about purely as a result of al Qaeda's interference in tribal affairs when the Islamists tried to force marriages between their fighters and women of the province.

The Sunni leaders of Anbar realized the Islamists represented another form of foreign occupation. Tribal leaders were wise enough to see that this new form of interference in their domestic affairs was an even greater danger to their sovereignty than the U.S. occupation. Eventually, the U.S. is bound to leave Iraq, but the foreign Islamists had shown their intention to remain and through marriage to integrate into Iraqi society.

Adopting age-old traditions that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, the Sunni tribes of Anbar Province turned to the United States for assistance. Washington was only too happy to oblige. What emerged in Anbar between the Sunnis and the American forces was a marriage of convenience rather than one of love.

Similarly, in Lebanon it was an incident involving the killing of several Lebanese army soldiers by Fatah al-Islam which brought about the resolve of the country's military to take on the Islamist. During three months of severe clashes, at times involving tanks, mortars and artillery duels, and during which the Lebanese army suffered close to 200 casualties — a particularly high toll given the size of the Lebanese armed forces — the Islamists were eventually routed. They suffered even heavier casualties than the Lebanese army, and their leader, a former political prisoner in Syria, was reportedly killed (though later DNA tests failed to confirm this).

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While the change in Anbar may not have been born of love it has turned into one based on the recent Michael Totten report which demonstrates an out pouring of affection for US forces who have saved them from the malignant forces of al Qaeda. The culture clash happened at a time when the US forces were trying to demonstrate more cultural sensitivity. This coincidence greatly advanced the process that led to the demise of the al Qaeda position in Anbar and the spread of the awakening to other parts of Iraq. It also led to US forces being finally greeted as liberators.