One thing I was struck by listening to Allawi last week was how often he referred to “tribes,” the tribes of Fallujah, the tribes of Najaf, etc, etc. It made me realize how little any of us “generalists” sitting here in the US really understand of what's going on in Iraq. What do we know about how a tribal society operates? That doesn't mean things are necessarily going better than we think, or worse, or that we shouldn't comment on what we read. But we should have a little humility.
Jesus H. Christ in fucking basket of fried chicken and a side of cole slaw, people. Yes. YES. YES! Many, if not most, modern Arab societies retain elements of tribalism, and of course the time to consider what "we" may or may not know about tribal societies was before we prematurely abandoned diplomacy and invaded their country with no Arab allies, on the basis of questionable intelligence, and shocked and awed their infrastructure into the fucking ground.
Everyone should find it scary that Lowry, the editor of the most important conservative magazine in the country, finds the concept of Arab tribalism so novel.
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