Mr Bush, your sheikh is dead

Some may call it divine providence, some may call it Allah’s bidding; in the end it was up to real Iraq to intervene and shatter the “surge is a success” story sold to US and world public opinion by President George W Bush and his top man in Iraq, General David Petraeus.

Only hours before Bush recommended to the nation and the world what he had told Petraeus to recommend to Congress – in essence his roadmap toward counterinsurgency and endless military occupation of Iraq – a key player in the “success” story was killed, significantly right at the start of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Risha – along with his two bodyguards was killed by a roadside bomb planted near his home in Ramadi, the capital of an Anbar province Petraeus had sworn was “pacified”.

 

Abu Risha, 37, was the leader of the Anbar Salvation Council, renamed Anbar Awakening – an alliance of about 200 Sunni sheikhs drawn mostly from the Dulaimi tribe and dozens of sub-clans who were fighting against al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers.

In his speech, Bush outlined the plan to leave more than 130,000 troops in the battle zone in Iraq next year, unless Petraeus and Bush decide further withdrawals are possible before that.
With regard to Abu Risha’s killing, as far as the White House is concerned it was the work of al-Qaeda (12 mentions of “al-Qaeda” in Bush’s speech). Were this to be the case, the “don’t mess with us” al-Qaeda message couldn’t be more devastating. Consider the chain of events of the past few days.

In a carefully stage-managed piece of theater, Bush visits al-Asad military air base in Anbar (not real Iraq) to stress his “surge” is working. He personally meets Abu Risha.

Osama bin Laden, looking like a clone of himself with a stick-on beard, releases his first video in almost three years, proving he’s alive and kicking. The video may or may be not be a fake.

Petraeus and US Ambassador in Iraq Ryan Crocker start their presentation in front of Congress, assuring the US and the world the “surge” is a “success”.

Bin Laden releases his second tape in four days, praising one of the September 11, 2001, “martyrs”. His image is on freeze-frame; his lips do not move.

Bush announces he will recommend to the nation what he told Petraeus to recommend to Congress: not a drawdown, but the actual extension of the “surge” until next summer.

Abu Risha, the man Petraeus relied on for the “success” of the “surge”, is killed in Anbar. No wonder Petraeus defined it as “a tragic loss”.
The hit on Bush’s sheikh happened just 10 days after they met. Al-Qaeda had plenty of motives to order the hit. But so did other key players. [read more]