Author Description

This work contends that the Anbar Awakening, as a movement, started 12 months prior to the proclamation in the northwest of Al Anbar, in Al Qaim District along the Syrian/Iraqi border. Most popular narratives of the Awakening in Iraq, the partnering of the Sunni Tribes with the Coalition and Government of Iraq (GOI) to fight al-Qaeda, associate the beginning of the movement with Sheikh Sattar Albu-Risha's 14 September 2006 proclamation in Ramadi, where he coined the term Al Sahawa. The Albu-Mahal tribe initially sided with al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) to fight the Coalition forces. But it soon became apparent that AQI was the real enemy as they implemented their own extreme version of Sharia, Islamic law, and sought to eliminate tribal influence and destroy the social fabric of the province. The Albu-Mahal, in what would become a fight for survival, realized they could not fight AQI on their own and pleaded for help from the Coalition and the GOI. The foundation for developing that partnership was a little known program called the "Desert Protectors." The Desert Protectors were local tribesmen who were recruited, trained, organized, and deployed as scouts under the watchful eye and guidance of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force (CJSOTF) in Iraq. Dr. Knarr tells the story of Al Sahawa, the Awakening, from a different perspective. Rather than the beginning of the movement, the 2006 awakening in Ramadi resulted from an accumulation of efforts; it was part of a sequence of events and local awakenings that started in 2005 in Al Qaim with the employment of the Desert Protectors. Although the Desert Protectors tactical successes were limited, program implications were much greater. Conceptually and creatively, the program was the first GOI and Coalition sanctioned approach linking the use of the tribes for local security to the legitimacy of the national government. Until that time the policy was to work through government institutions; working through the tribes w