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Subject: Lions Led By Donkeys
SYSOP    11/21/2014 5:40:23 AM
 
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esmoore5       11/21/2014 12:34:01 PM
Stopping an Awakening in Iraq before it can start:
 
"A centerpiece of President Obama’s strategy for defeating the Islamic
State is mobilizing tribal fighters to join the Iraqi military in retaking
Anbar province and others dominated by Sunnis. But new research
shows that the jihadists have been working since 2009 to gut the very
Sunni tribal leadership on which Obama’s rollback depends — making
the U.S. campaign much more difficult. 
 
U.S. strategists want to create a “national guard” version of the tribal
militia known as the Awakening, which in 2007 and 2008 crushed
al-Qaeda in Iraq, the predecessor of the Islamic State. But overlooked
evidence shows that the jihadists have worked systematically to destroy
the Awakening and assassinate tribal leaders who might challenge their
rule.
 
The jihadists’ long-running intimidation campaign against the Sunni
tribes is one more sign that, as Director of National Intelligence James
Clapper told me in September, the United States "" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-we-underestimated-the-islamic-state-james-clapper-says/2014/09/18/f0f17072-3f6f-11e4-9587-5dafd96295f0_story.html">“underestimated” the
Islamic State. "" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-u-s-underestimated-rise-of-isis-in-iraq-and-syria/">Obama later told CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he shared
Clapper’s critique."
 
See:
 
 
 
 
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