CLC Groups: A Sign America is Winning the Hearts and Minds Back of the Iraqi People?

In a seemingly 100-percent turnaround from 2005 and 2006, last year saw the rise of Concerned Local Citizen (CLC) groups, who many are reasoning are just as or even more vital than the Sunni Awakening Councils that have seen the rapid drop of domestic support for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The CLCs are largely composed of private citizens, former insurgents, and others who, for both financial and security reasons, act as a form of tip service on things ranging from locations of IEDs to profiles on wanted insurgents.

There's been a definite backlash against these groups, however, as al-Qaeda in Iraq, recently suffering the arrests or deaths of 20 key emirs across the country, attempts to discourage the CLCs in the forms of brutal executions and beheadings as warnings. These have largely backfired, however, as CLCs simply retaliated by turning in their oppressors, which has resulted in a massive decrease in violence.

The most important thing highlighted by a cooperative relationship between American forces and Iraqi citizens is a decline in the inherent mistrust, a potential shift into the strategy that anti-war critics often called for in "winning the hearts and minds of Iraq". Experts say that this recent assistance towards the Coalition is based on a number of factors, between an intolerance for al-Qaeda in Iraq's harsh Sharia enforcement as a form of Neo-Taliban, to the shift in strategic priority during the Baghdad Security Plan, which involved marines getting down into what retired Captain Dale Dye described as "personal relationships" with the local citizens.

So far it has paid off: IEDs are down, VBIEDs are down, and just as importantly, the manufacture and distribution of these IEDs and VBIEDs are down thanks to the killing and arrest of a number of key bomb makers.

The Multinational Force Iraq seems to be focusing less on supporting the Sunni Awakening Councils and primarily on supporting the CLCs, recognizing that a vigilant citizenry is far more reliable than one time insurgents, allowing a form of "fall back" in the case that the Sunni militant groups now hunting down their antagonizers in Iraq should return to their rogue status of 2005 and 2006.

The CLCs have also been crucial in what the MNFI refers to as "bottom-up reconciliation", which it remains confident about.

In the latest report to Congress, it explained that both Sunnis and Shi'ites are cooperating with the Coalition and their various Provincial Reconstruction Teams, in a stark contrast to the previous year's near-genocidal bloodshed.

It maintains that while the local citizens are far more interested in reconciliation, it is the top level political reconciliation that is largely lacking.

While the December 2007 report to Congress says, "National issues such as corruption and transnational issues such as financing of terrorist criminal activity must be eliminated in order to further the Government of Iraq," the CLCs, however, represent an important, civilian gain that is key to the Coalition's recent momentum.

Sources:

-Multinational Force Iraq Central Command
-Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq December 2007 Report to Congress