Posted on Fri, May. 11, 2007
By Leila Fadel
McClatchy Newspapers
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Ali Hatam Ali al Suleiman sat in a high-backed leather chair in his Baghdad office, proud of what the Anbar Salvation Council has done. The council, a group of leaders from the Dulaim tribe, Iraq's largest, is driving the al-Qaida in Iraq group from what had been sanctuary in Anbar province.
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"The service we are providing is fighting al-Qaida and militias with no mercy," he said. "They corrupted our religion; they misinterpreted our values. We are Iraqis - not Sunnis and Shiites. We don't threaten to bomb and to kill; all we wanted was our dignity and to live."
<...>
"The Americans were not truly working in Anbar," he said. "We asked them to clean their hands of al-Qaida and we will drive them out."
The effort has been largely successful, said Suleiman, an elegant young sheik of 34. Life in Ramadi, the provincial capital, is reviving. Residents have cell phone service. Schools and hospitals are opening.
"We did in three months what they couldn't do in four years," he said, referring to U.S. troops. "We are not fighting al-Qaida for the sake of the Americans. We are fighting them to rid ourselves of this shame."
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"I will send Bush a message," he said. "He failed; let him confess that frankly. He put the American Army and the people in a game that is a loser's game."
moreCould it be that Americans are fueling the violence with foreign fighters and if they left, that aspect of the violence would subside?
Anbar is where
4 Marines were killed when a U.S. helicopter was downed in early December,
another seven were killed in a crash early in 2007, another
three on April 27 and
five more troops killed on April 28.
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