The London Telegraph reports this morning that Iraqis have increasingly become so disenchanted with the insurgents -- both foreign and domestic -- that the tribal leaders have organized their own counterinsurgencies in areas like Qaim. These clan-based factions have turned on those who attempted to impose their own Taliban-like rules on communities:

Tribal leaders in Husaybah are attacking followers of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born terrorist who established the town as an entry point for al-Qa'eda jihadists being smuggled into the country.

The reason, the US military believes, is frustration at the heavy-handed approach of the foreigners, who have kidnapped and assassinated local leaders and imposed a strict Islamic code. ...

Captain Thomas Sibley, intelligence officer of 3rd battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, based in Qaim, said: "People here were committed supporters of the insurgency but you cannot now even get a marriage licence." ...

The trigger was the assassination of a tribal sheikh, from the Sulaiman tribe, ordered by Zarqawi for inviting senior US marines for lunch. American troops gained an insight into the measures the jihadists had imposed during recent house-to-house searches in nearby towns and villages.

The insurgents once had the sympathy of the locals, who presumably didn't like seeing foreign troops in their country. However, they soon found out that as bad as Saddam had been, the new so-called "insurgents" were just as malevolent. The satellite dishes got pulled down from roofs, music shops got shut down, women went under the burkha and men wearing western clothes got beaten. Because the Americans were the only people attempting to fix the water, sewage, and electrical systems, the enforced ban on assisting foreigners meant that all of those systems went into complete collapse.

Assassinating the tribal chiefs may have triggered their reaction, but the outcome was inevitable. The locals quickly discovered that they had a choice between two foreign forces -- an infidel force that wanted to rebuild their community and leave them to their own devices, or a foreign Islamic force that used murder and brutality to impose a second tyranny. It should surprise few that the tribal chiefs chose the former over the latter, and have decided to fight for themselves to rid the area of the Zarqawi lunatics.

People may remain skeptical of the Iraqi desire for freedom, saying that the region has never known democracy and the divisions run too deep for representative government to work. Iraqis may not know democracy, but they certainly know oppression -- and they have consistently rejected it since their liberation. They fought their way to the polls in January, and they fight against the enemies of liberty in the streets of Qaim and elsewhere.

On the celebration of our own demand for freedom and liberty, we should not forget that those impulses live in every human heart.

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» Iraqi rebels turn their guns on al-Qa'eda from Don Singleton
Those worried about a theocracy taking control should take note. [Read More]

Tracked on July 4, 2005 9:14 AM

» They turned the city into hell. from Mark in Mexico
A new report of fighting between local tribes and foreign jihadists along the Iraqi border with Syria. Tribal leaders in Husaybah are attacking followers of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born terrorist who established the town as an entry point f... [Read More]

Tracked on July 4, 2005 9:42 AM

» GOOD NEWS FROM IRAQ -- SORT OF from Stop the Bleating!
More red-on-red fighting. Captain Ed is please by a story in the Telegraph. The London Telegraph reports this morning that Iraqis have increasingly become so disenchanted with the insurgents -- both foreign and domestic -- that the tribal leaders have [Read More]

Tracked on July 4, 2005 10:58 AM

» Sunni tribe fighting al Qaeda near Syrian border from Security Watchtower
The UK Telegraph is reporting on more fighting taking place near the Syrian border between Sunni tribes and al Qaeda. Tribal leaders in Husaybah are attacking followers of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born terrorist who established the town as an e... [Read More]

Tracked on July 4, 2005 11:40 AM

» Winning Hearts and Minds...for Freedom, Not America from Fraternitas Vitae
Captain Ed notes a very positive sign in Iraq: the organization of counterinsurgencies by Iraqis against the foreign insurgents. This news may seem at first to be of little importance; the Iraq war naysayers will surely dismiss this as another... [Read More]

Tracked on July 4, 2005 1:08 PM

» Iraq Infighting from Our Way of Life
Captain Ed has a good post about some infighting by the insurgents/terrorists in Iraq....The terrorists don't understand that the average citizen does not want their utopian Islamic state, but instead want to be "free", be it from Saddam or the forei... [Read More]

Tracked on July 5, 2005 12:09 AM

» Winning Hearts and Minds from Milblog
The general theory put forth by some is that the Iraqi people will support the insurgents no matter what, because as bad as the insurgents are, they're better than the infidel occupier. That strikes me as being both patronizing and... [Read More]

Tracked on July 5, 2005 12:34 AM