The Fallujah awakening: a case study in counter-insurgency

Abstract

The successful pacification of Fallujah in 2007 during the Anbar Awakening movement was due to the coordinated efforts of US and Iraqi forces to physically and psychologically separate the people from the insurgency. Efforts along security, political, and development lines along with a robust tribal effort eliminated the armed insurgency and set the basis for victory in the area. But a synchronized delivery of these resources was insufficient to defeat the insurgency by itself absent the population's decision to turn against the insurgents. This process began to occur in 2006 and was successfully capitalized upon by Coalition Forces in Fallujah in 2007.

Keywords:

• Fallujah
• The Awakening
• The Anbar Awakening
• Anbar
• Anbar Province
• Iraq
• Sunni insurgency
• counter-insurgency
• 2007
• surge

Notes

 1. Bernard B. Fall, Street Without Joy, Harrisburg, PA: The Stackpole Company, 1961, 375.

 2. Jeffrey Race, War Comes to Long An: Revolutionary Conflict in a Vietnamese Province, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1972, 276.

 3. Thomas R. Searle, ‘Tribal Engagement in Anbar Province: The Critical Role of Special Operations Forces,’ Joint Forces Quarterly, Issue 50 (3rd Quarter 2008): 62–6.

 4. The Abu Mahal tribe in Al Qaim near the Syrian border turned against al-Qaeda in large part because they had burned down the tribe's warehouses of liquor, bootleg DVDs, and porn that they smuggled into Iraq and sold for profit.

 5. John Bagot Glubb, The Story of the Arab Legion, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1948, 120.

 6. Captain Patriquin was killed in Ramadi on 6 December 2006. You can view Patriquin's presentation at: blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/files/PatriquinPowerPoint.pdf

 7. Major Niel Smith and Colonel Sean MacFarland, ‘Anbar Awakens: The Tipping Point,’ Military Review (March–April 2008): 41–52. Sheik Sattar was assassinated on 13 September 2007.

 8. Glubb, The Story of the Arab Legion, 41.

 9. Ibid., 176.

10. Ibid., 76.

11. David Galula, Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice, Westport, CT: Praeger Security International, 2006, 78.

12. Lieutenant General Lewis Walt, USMC, on Vietnam, February 1967; see Joseph H. Alexander, Don Horan and Norman C. Stahl, The Battle History of the U.S. Marines: A Fellowship of Valor, New York: Harper Collins, 1997, 316.

13. Former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay, http://www.rmaf.org.ph/

14. Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam, New York: Vintage Books, 1989, 107.

15. Edward Geary Lansdale, In the Midst of Wars: An American's Mission to Southeast Asia, New York: Fordham University Press, 1991, 373.