The Anbar Awakening was a movement in Iraq where citizens banded together to increase security and protect their communities with the support of Coalition forces. It was caused by the presence of Al Qaeda in Iraq and led by tribal sheikh Abdul Sattar Buzaigh al-Rishawi. While it effectively pushed back Al Qaeda, it also caused logistical problems and created a third military force in Iraq, which the Iraqi government saw as a threat to political stability.
The Anbar Awakening was the first in a series of “Awakening” movements that reshaped the political landscape in Iraq during the American-led Iraq War at the turn of the 21st century. In these Awakenings, ordinary citizens have banded together in an effort to increase security and protect their communities, often with the support and assistance of Coalition forces. The Awakening model has generated great interest among military leaders, along with concern from the Iraqi government, which has vowed to break up the Anbar Awakening along with other Awakening movements before they become a third military presence in Iraq.
Several factors contributed to the Anbar Awakening, known in Arabic as Sahawah al-Anbar. The first was the presence of Al Qaeda, a well-known terrorist group, in Iraq. Al Qaeda has used a variety of tactics to intimidate and coerce Iraqi citizens, hoping to get them to fight coalition forces in Iraq. Al Qaeda has also driven ethnic minorities in Iraq from their traditional homelands and, more generally, threatened the security of many regions of Iraq.
In Anbar province, a tribal sheikh, Abdul Sattar Buzaigh al-Rishawi, decided that the situation had reached a dangerous point. He approached US forces in the spring of 2006 and asked for their assistance in organizing several tribes together into a collective alliance that could be used to fight Iraqi forces. American leaders agreed, moderating a series of meetings with tribal militias with the aim of uniting them in a common cause.
On the surface, the Anbar Awakening appears to have worked. Al Qaeda was effectively pushed back in Anbar province and Awakenings modeled on the Anbar movement had some success in other parts of Iraq. However, the Anbar Awakening has also caused some serious logistical problems. Many of the tribes involved had disagreements, some of them centuries old, and after the assassination of Sheikh al-Rishawi, the new leader of the Anbar Awakening was unable to control the tribes, leading to instability in the area. This problem has been mirrored in other Revivals as communication and leadership have broken down.
For the Iraqi government, the Anbar Awakening also created a dangerous situation in which a third, largely uncontrolled military force was allowed to gain ground in Iraq alongside Iraqi and coalition forces. The Iraqi government saw the Anbar Awakening as a threat to Iraq’s political stability, vowing to more tightly regulate tribal militias to avoid the creation of a monster. American forces, on the other hand, viewed the Anbar Awakening as a public relations coup, proving that their efforts in Iraq to unite the people against Al Qaeda were working.
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