Portsmouth, New Hampshire native Nathan Ritzo is on his second tour with the U.S. Army in Iraq. At the moment he is in the area north of Baghdad called Taji where he is getting a first hand look at Iraqi efforts to reconcile and rebuild. From Ritzo's perspective it's going pretty well.
Iraqi Shi'ite and Sunni leaders reached out to each other in the District of Taji on Nov. 8 to discuss the future of northern Baghdad Province. The conference was part of the "Taji Awakening," an historic political reconciliation between Iraqi Shi'ites and Sunnis in the region.
Shi'ite and Sunni tribal leaders from across Iraq met with officials from the Iraqi government, military and security forces to discuss expanding the new alliance between Iraq's Shi'ite and Sunni communities to combat Al Qaeda's presence in the region. Also discussed was how to improve the quality of life in northern Baghdad Province after decades of oppression under Saddam Hussein, four years of terrorist occupation in the Taji region, and sectarian fighting after the regime change...
...Tom Burke is the team leader for the region's embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team (ePRT), which played an important role in aiding the Iraqis to plan and organize the event.
"Today the principle members of each of the tribes are present," Burke said. He continued by saying that the Iraqis selected who would attend the conference, and not the Coalition. "They did the selection. Not us. These are the key players for them," he said.
The conference began with speakers addressing the attendees on their concerns for the future of the Taji area and the various problems specific to the different tribes living in the region.
The conference became more informal as the day progressed; the attendees mingled with one another over lunch to further discuss matters concerning the reconciliation process, repairing infrastructure damage and the future of the region.
We take for granted, here in America, that our local elected officials will often confer with officials at the state and national levels to address local concerns. We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that this is probably quite a novel concept to the average Iraqi. Saddam Hussein, and more recently al Qaeda, had a very different approach to solving local problems.
Ritzo's earlier column on the Taji Awakening is here.
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