A great story, folks. We need more men like King.
On Their Terms
U.S. soldier reaches out to understand Iraqi tribal system
By Mohamad Bazzi
MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT
NEWSDAY
December 21, 2003
Baghdad, Iraq - As looting and violence spread after the fall of the Iraqi regime, Sheik Hussein Ali al-Shaalan wanted to help U.S. forces restore order.
Al-Shaalan was an ideal ally for the United States. A Shia Muslim tribal chief from the southern town of Diwaniya, he fled Iraq after the 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein. He received political asylum in Britain and met regularly with State Department officials. But U.S. military commanders ignored him when he offered his advice, and the loyalty of his 200,000-member Khazzal clan, after the American invasion of Iraq.
"I noticed something among the officers: They have this arrogance, and it really hurts them," said al-Shaalan, 53, a tall, mustached man who wears tailored dark suits underneath his regal robes. "Everyone, even a small officer, thinks he's a big man."
The sheik lost hope about working with the Americans until he met Lt. Col. Alan King, an Army civil affairs commander who has made it his personal mission to understand Iraq's labyrinthine tribal system. King impressed al-Shaalan right away by recounting a lengthy parable about the origin of the sheik's tribe. "I realized that he knew the history of some tribes," the sheik said. "So this shows that he is doing his duty."
In the American campaign to win over a skeptical Iraqi public, King is an unlikely ambassador: a Lutheran from Arlington, Va., with a blond crew cut and a wry smile. Unlike T.E. Lawrence, the British adventurer who helped Arab tribes expel their Ottoman rulers in the early 20th century, King does not try to dress like the tribal chiefs or live among them. But King has done more to engage Iraq's tribal leaders than anyone else in the U.S. military or the civilian-led occupation authority.
Soon after he entered Baghdad with the 3rd Infantry Division in early April, King realized that tribal sheiks would be a key to winning Iraqis' trust and rebuilding the country. Iraqi tribes tend to be very religious, nationalistic and well-armed.
So King began memorizing sections of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, and building a formidable Rolodex of tribal contacts. He got a copy of "Baghdad Wilayat," a guide to the country's tribes published by British authorities in 1918, when they occupied Iraq after the Ottomans.
King's current job title is special assistant for tribal affairs" in the 352nd Civil Affairs Command, which is responsible for coordinating civil affairs units throughout Iraq. But he's more like the Army's resident scholar on tribes.
In his Palm Pilot, he keeps notes on the history of each major tribe and its subsets. The entries are divided into tribe, clan, branch and family. He also keeps track of the countless sheiks and sub-sheiks of each tribe - so he can spot "fake" sheiks installed by Hussein to replace tribal leaders who opposed the Baathist regime.
"I realized early on that the sheiks have an important place in Iraqi society," said King, 40, whose military career spans Special Forces and Psychological Operations missions in Latin America. "The idea is not to build controlling little warlords, but to use the information that the sheiks have to benefit the country."
King's research - and his wooing of the sheiks - has paid off. In July, tribal contacts helped King's unit capture Mizban Khadr Hadi, a member of the former regime's Revolutionary Command Council who ranked No. 23 on the list of the 55 most-wanted Iraqis. Through King, tribal elders also helped U.S. troops capture or negotiate the surrender of five suspects on a separate list of 200 wanted Iraqi officials. And through tribal contacts, he was able to recover 24 artifacts looted from the Iraqi national museum and 59 paintings stolen from the Museum of Modern Art.
"It's important to recognize that not everyone in Iraq is against us," King said, sitting in a small office at the occupation authority's Baghdad headquarters, where he receives a handful of sheiks each day. "These sheiks are important people who are working with us to control the security situation."
In many parts of Iraq, and especially in the Sunni Muslim-dominated center of the country, sheiks complain that they have been sidelined by U.S. commanders who do not understand the role of tribes in Iraqi society. For centuries, the storied tribes of Iraq have played a decisive role in controlling the country. Their influence has spanned Ottoman rule, the British occupation, the Iraqi monarchy and Hussein's Baathist regime.
Tribes can overthrow conquerors, and the British experience is a cautionary tale of history cited often in Iraq. The British expected a warm tribal welcome when they marched into Iraq. Instead they were met with hostility from the tribes, which united to massacre thousands of British soldiers during the revolt of 1920.
"Iraq is probably one of the most complex countries in the Arab world - historically, ethnically and politically," said Sheik Adnan al-Janabi, leader of a mostly Sunni tribe of 750,000 members. "After two prolonged wars, and 35 years of a vicious dictatorship, you have a very murky landscape. I think anybody who rushes in like a fool will certainly drown."
To many Iraqis, the U.S. occupation made a costly mistake by being slow to learn how to navigate Iraq's tribal and religious landscape. By not understanding the code of tribal honor and vengeance for murdered kinsmen, the U.S. risked creating new enemies with each house raid and each person killed or injured by mistake.
In areas like Fallujah, a city about 30 miles west of Baghdad that has been at the center of the anti-American insurgency, guerrillas use the tribal system for shelter and support. As one example of how tribes can be a powerful social force, U.S. soldiers in Fallujah mistakenly opened fire in September on two Iraqi police cars chasing bandits, killing eight policemen. Four of those killed were from the Abu Eissa clan that had been cooperating with the Americans, but turned against them after the shooting.
Even though U.S. commanders apologized for the incident, they were slow in reaching out to the tribe and offering financial compensation to the families of those killed - an Iraqi tribal custom. In Fallujah, the accidental shooting became one more force driving the insurgency.
"The Americans came into our country without taking the time to understand the tribal and social relationships," said Mohammed Zoubaiyi, a professor at the Islamic Studies College in Baghdad and a resident of Fallujah. "Most of them could not tell the difference between a sheik who leads a tribe and a sheik who leads prayers at the mosque."
King is trying to change all that. This month, he got approval from the occupation authority to create an Office of Provincial Outreach, which will be responsible for liaison with Iraq's major tribes. The office will be headed by a State Department official, with King as its deputy director.
Iraq is home to about 150 major tribes, which break down into more than 2,000 smaller clans. The tribes range in size from 1 million to several thousand people, and many have related branches in Iraq's Arab neighbors: Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. About 35 of the largest tribes are the most influential - and it's on them that King has focused his attention. He is slowly amassing a guide to all the tribes in Iraq, and once a week he meets with an Iraqi tribal scholar.
"I know who the sheik generals are of the major tribes, so if somebody says the wrong name, then I know they're not the real sheik," King said, smiling.
But the sheiks seem most impressed by his knowledge of the Quran, and his ability to engage them in discussion about the holy text.
"Alan knows a lot about the Quran. He memorizes verses - and sometimes he quotes verses that I haven't memorized," said al-Janabi, a Western-educated sheik who worked for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. "He's less of a soldier and more of an intellectual who tries to learn about other societies."
At a dinner with al-Shaalan one recent night, King began ticking off Quranic verses.
"Christians, Jews, Muslims are all people of the book," the sheik said. "There is no difference between us."
King interrupted: "Sura Two, Aya 62," referring to a verse about the three Abrahamic religions coexisting. The dinner table broke out in laughter.
"But some people use a different verse to sow dissension," al-Shaalan continued.
"Sura Five, Aya 68," King retorted, drawing more laughs.
"You should forget the tribes and study religion," al-Shaalan responded.
King sees his Quranic studies as part of his mission. "We are applying Western thoughts to Eastern minds," he said later. "But these are two different ways of thinking. So I try to talk to them from their perspective."
Iraq: A Tribal Lexicon
Of Iraq's many political divides, including religion, ethnicity and region, one of the least understood is the country's tribalism. The country has thousands of tribal groups to which various people give their loyalty, ranging from extended family clans that may number just several hundred people to broad confederations of clans that claim the loyalty of a million or more. As did past rulers of Iraq, U.S. authorities occupying the country must try to win the cooperation of the tribes, which can powerfully support or undermine any government. Here are some of the important tribal groups:
SHAMMAR
The Shammar claim to be Iraq's biggest tribal confederation, with more than 1.5 million people. Like other big confederations it has tended to be unified only when threatened from outside, as in wartime. Shammar member tribes include the Toqa (historically settled in central Iraq) and the Jarba (centered in the north). Shammar tribes cover vast territory, from south of Baghdad to the Syrian border in the northwest.
DULAIM
Many prominent Iraqis carry the last name "Dulaimi," signalling they belong to this broad tribal confederation. Many Dulaimi tribes and leaders were among the most important in supporting Hussein during his rule. But these days, the confederation is divided. Dulaimi tribes in the western province of Al Anbar, around Ramadi, have been arguing about whether or not to cooperate with U.S. rule.
JABURI
The Jaburi are an Arab tribe that includes both Sunni and Shia branches, and that had a particularly complex relationship with Saddam Hussein. In the 1980s, Hussein gave money and powerful jobs to Jaburi tribal leaders, and in exchange, they recruited thousands of men from their tribe to fight for Hussein in Iraq's war with Iran. But the relationship fell apart after a group of prominent Jaburis plotted to assassinate Hussein in 1990. He purged the tribe's leaders, and Jaburi leaders now cooperate with the Americans, notably in helping rule the northern city of Mosul.
Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.
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