Iraq: Good News And Bad News

The was good and bad news out of Iraq in the past twenty four hours. First the good news. Four Sunni tribes in Ramadi decided to fight against Salafis under control of Abu Musab Zarqawi. The Salafis (mostly foreigners) had posted warnings for the 3,000 Shia to leave Ramadi which stepped on the home town pride of the citizens of Ramadi. From the Washington Post:

"We have had enough of his nonsense," said Sheik Ahmad Khanjar, leader of the Albu Ali clan, referring to Zarqawi. "We don't accept that a non-Iraqi should try to enforce his control over Iraqis, regardless of their sect -- whether Sunnis, Shiites, Arabs or Kurds.''

At least Zarqawi is making some of the same mistakes Bush is making.

This is a promising development. I really think that the only way out of this mess is going to be through progress made through tribal societies. As I've written before, the Iraqi situation somewhat mirrors the 1980's LA gang problems. Think of us as the cops, the Sunni as the Bloods, and the Shia as the Crips. The tribes and clans are the sets and subsets of the Bloods and Crips.

Now the bad news. There is a sniper on the loose in South Baghdad. Depending on who you believe, he has killed anywhere from two to twelve US soldiers and wounded six. From the Guardian:

"He's good," said Specialist Travis Burress, 22, a sniper with the 1-64 battalion based in Camp Rustamiyah. "Every time we dismount I'm sure everyone has got him in the back of their minds. He's a serious threat to us."

Soldiers have named the unknown sniper Juba. Hope you guys find him soon. I actually thought there would be a lot more of this, but maybe when you are a hard line dictator, you don't want a lot of well trained snipers out there that could shoot you.

One last thing, does anyone know how this guy came to be known as Juba? Is it an acronym or something, or does it refer to jubbah, which is a long coat worn in the region?