Foreign Affairs

Captain Patriquin, Candidate Obama and the Anbar Awakening

JAMES SCOTT LINVILLE
Friday 15th August 2008

When the Barack Obama World Tour arrived in Baghdad last month, the candidate, wearing shades and a cool suit, smiled and waved before descending the stairs from the plane. Later the Senator toured the city, and sat for interview with reporters. In shirt-sleeves, he gamely sunk a basketball shot from far out at the three-point line before grabbing a mike to address troops who assembled to cheer him on, and applauded wildly.  (His shot caught only the net, no rim or backboard. Truly the man has a light shining upon him.)

What we did NOT ever see was the candidate wearing a flak jacket, because during his time there he never needed to put one on.

For American viewers this lack of flak jacket, a Holmesian "dog that didn't bark," may have come as a surprise since over the last two years they had repeatedly been told, by the major network news programs, by the New York Times and The New Yorker, and by the Democratic leaders in Congress, that "the war" was being lost, or indeed had been lost.  As it happens, last month US casualties reached their lowest level since the '03 invasion. In his remarks during the tour, Mr. Obama recognized the change made "recently," and underscored that such success had come as a surprise to him, as it had as well, he suggested, to President Bush and Senator McCain.

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COMMENTS: 1

COMMENTS

senorlechero
August 20th, 2008
3:08 PM
The "change" you are talking about did not begin in Ramadi. The events you describe were indeed important in turning the Anbar tribes against al Qeada, but events in Husaybah had already shown the tribal leaders that the US Marines could protect them. Operation Steel Curtain, followed by newly implemented COIN strategies, in particularly staging marines with Iraqi troops throughout the town in Battle Positions, had stabilized Husaybah and forced al Qeada out of the area. Without operation Steel Curtain and the successful COIN strategies used in Husaybah the tribes would have had no reason to believe the US military could protect them. None of this takes anything away from what Capt. Patriquin did. He was successful in persuading the sheiks and deserves credit for that. But credit for beginning the "change" in Anbar belongs to the US Marines in Husaybah.

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