Global Policy Forum

By Antonio Castaneda

Last fall, insurgents overran police stations and Iraqi army bases in this northern rural region, scaring off nearly all 2,000 Iraqi troops and keeping people locked inside their homes at night. Last month only two attacks took place in this Rhode Island-sized area mostly populated by Sunni Arabs and Kurds, according to U.S. commanders in the area.

The difference, they say, stems from a new approach of relying on sheiks and mukhtars - the tribal and local leaders who wield enormous influence among some 75,000 people in hundreds of villages and small towns south of the city of Mosul. "Sheiks are the real power here," said Lt. Col. Bradley Becker, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery Regiment. "Mayors just aren't as good as sheiks on security matters."

Becker says he now meets with 50 to 100 sheiks a week, and holds monthly confabs with them in a base auditorium that usually shows movies for relaxing soldiers. Sheiks and mukhtars, most in white robes, some walking gingerly with canes, flow into the room and listen to U.S. and Iraqi officials talking about security as well as local issues such as electricity supply. About six people showed up for the first meeting early this year - but the latest, on Tuesday, drew about 300. Much of it took a townhall tone, hearing complaints about gasoline shortages and inquiries about arrested fellow tribesmen. "After November, what happened was bad, but they came to us," said Sheik Nief Saleh said of the Americans. "I try to help as I can." In return for the sheiks' help, Becker says he has spent close to $1 million on reconstruction jobs employing hundreds of tribesmen.

Critics say this approach undermines the institutions of pluralist national government which the United States is trying to build because it empowers conservative leaders who preach restrictions on women's rights and a strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Others, however, say it empowers ancient ruling institutions at the exact moment when the new government needs all the support it can get. "Am I here to make social change so women can smoke cigarettes and drive cars? No." said Becker. "We're here to provide security and build infrastructure and a democratic society."

Phebe Marr, author of "The Modern History of Iraq," says that as long as Iraq is short of security forces, "tribal leaders may be the only resources available." However, she said in an e-mail, "Relying on and supporting tribal structures does delegitimize local government and solidifies traditional tribal practices."

But for military officials here, it's a practical way of dealing with the most pressing matter - violence that has shaken public confidence in the elected government. Pragmatism also shaped the makeup of the region's three Iraqi battalions. Here Sunni Arabs and Kurds are largely segregated - a departure from the approach tried elsewhere of stitching the groups together in single units.

For now, over 300 U.S. soldiers and about 3,000 Iraqi soldiers control the area, establishing dozens of checkpoints on the highways to central cities. These have hobbled the insurgency locally, allowing the region to focus on development even though occasional attacks still happen, U.S. officials say. As the 2nd Battalion arrived last November, a burst of insurgent violence during the Muslim holiday of Ramadan destroyed six police stations and several Iraqi Army bases. All but about 50 Iraqi soldiers abandoned their posts, Becker said.

Now mukhtars bring in some of the area's most wanted men with just a phone call from U.S. commanders, Becker said, relieving his soldiers from having to raid suspected homes. U.S. officials say the mukhtars value the reconstruction aid and do not want to return to the days when they were caught between U.S. and insurgent battles.

Becker acknowledges that the strategy of involving local leaders won't work everywhere, but he says it can be effective in some places and wishes other units would try it.

Becker, a native of Sacramento, Calif., is deeply immersed in the region's everyday life. He has attended the funeral of every Iraqi soldier killed in his sector, and he knows the names of villages that even his locally recruited translators haven't heard of. His daybook reads like a small-town mayor's. "We're going to another wedding in two weeks," he says.