Radio War Nerd EP #459 — Iraqi Insurgency, Part 2: 2005 (feat. Rob Ashlar)
Part 2 in our series with Rob Ashlar on the early Iraqi insurgency that gave birth to Islamic State and its many affiliates across Africa and Eurasia. This episode, we look at the year 2005, when the insurgency radicalized and exploded under Zarqawi's Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Guest: Rob Ashlar
Recorded: July 23, 2024
Part 2 in our series with Rob Ashlar on the early Iraqi insurgency that gave birth to Islamic State and its many affiliates across Africa and Eurasia (Part 1 here). This episode, we look at the year 2005: the insurgency radicalizes and explodes under Zarqawi and his Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).
Check out RWN EP #458, part 1 of our Iraqi Insurgency series with Rob Ashlar
Also check out RWN EP #435 with Rob Ashlar: IS-KP's Friends in US-Occupied Afghanistan
Subscribe to Rob Ashlar's substack
Read Rob Ashlar's article "Monotheism and Struggle: The Story of Iraqi Insurgency, 2003-04" in Cosmonaut.
*Map of Anbar province
Baghdad's descent into sectarianism.
Green: Shia-majority, Red: Sunni-majority, Blue: Christian, Orange: Mixed or ‘State of Transition’
*Key Acronyms & Names for this episode:
-Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ("Zarqawi"): leader of JTJ (Jama'at al-Tawhid wa-l Jihad), then Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI)
-Hamid Dawud al-Zawi, aka Abu Omar al-Baghdadi (aka Abu Dua?): First Caliph of Islamic State in Iraq (IRI)
-ISI: Islamic State in Iraq, formed in 2006 rooted in Zarqawi's AQI. First of the Islamic State (IS, ISIS, IS-KP etc) groups
-AQI: Al Qaeda in Iraq, formed in 2004 by Zarqawi, folded into Islamic State in Iraq after Zarqawi's death
-AQAP: Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
-Muhammad Latif: Head of Ramadi Shura Council, cooperated with Zarqawi at times
-SCIRI: Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Shia sectarian group that produced Badr Brigades and notorious Shia death squad Mukhtar Battalion
-Albu Mahal tribe: Powerful tribe in Al Qaim that rebelled against AQI, fielded 1000-strong Hamza Battalion
Total time: 1:36:14
Direct link to this episode's mp3 here
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Where: Little Beer Quarter, 6 Edward St, Wellington
When: Sunday, July 28 at 3pm
*
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Comments (26)
Turbulence: Ashler’s new pod … check it out
Looking forward to (hoping for) more installments with Rob. Great episodes.
I remember these times, motivated to somehow differantiate between "somewhat ok" FRL/FRE+nationalists who faught for "national liberation" and the Islamists of all stripes, mostly seperated by their insistance on insane tacitics like suicide bombings. In the end, this whole episode of my political development just lays bare the insufficany of believing that "oppressed nations" have some "Lenin given" right to fight (neo)colonialists/imperialists for an imagined community. Of course they should fight imperialist oppression, but what they (nearly always) do is actually fight to be the top dog in the system of national bourgeois states.
Way to miss the point... I explicitly condemn this attitude in the episode because I state that even the most repugnant groups such as AQI can never be as destructive and all-consuming as western imperialism. This claim - 'just lays bare the insufficany of believing that "oppressed nations" have some "Lenin given" right to fight (neo)colonialists/imperialists for an imagined community' - is especially astonishing. I take it that you fell for the KKK-esque lies about 'Hamas rapes'? Because that is the natural conclusion of your politics. You may believe that you are a principled 'leftist' but you're a useful fool among many. - Rob
Beside the point I know but I had to laugh at John referring to the venue as "Little Bear [Beer] Quarter" because that's a classic Kiwi accent mixup
I just finished the 2 eps. Really enjoyed the info. Was kind of surprised tgere was no mention of the Bremer/Bush/Cheney decision to disband the Iraqi military. I was there in the later years of the war and met soldiers who had been in the meetings with Bremer and had tried to convince him to not disband it because it was full of Sunnis and there were tons of weapons still unaccounted for. They told him that this plus a 40 plus unemployment level, max 6 hours a day of electricity, little clean water, or food, and disbanding the military would lead to a massive insurgency, but Bremer was an arrogant moron. Bremer wore a suit and combat boots, because he thought the soldiers would respect him for it. It did the opposite, especially when he sent them, daily, to Kuwait to be dry cleaned. The planes would come back with his suits and palettes of krispy kreme donuts Bremer thought he could buy everyone off with. I met another guy who'd benn in the meeting where Bremer had told the military to shoot museum looters and they'd told him that wasn't their job. He typified the heritage ferrets Bush had sent to setup the country. Incompetent idealogues nobody respected or listened to who took advice from the crooked, like curveball. I always thought Bremer should get some credit as an AQI founder.
That's a great post. Have you thought about writing your memoirs of the Bremer era?
Love it all, got to have him back. Don’t know who a good guest for this would be but the insurgency/mini civil war that went down in Saudi Arabia in the early 2000s is very difficult to learn about.
The anti-insurgency measures are pretty easy to learn about though: single most effective COIN strategy short of extirpation is buying these radical youths an Escalade and a wife
Years ago I worked on a research project that was analyzing all of these leaked ISIL intake forms for volunteers. The forms included a section on “previous jihad experience”, and many of the recruits had put down “Anbar Awakening”. This always threw me for a loop- were they former AQI who fought against the Awakening, or anti-AQI Sunnis that decided to join the Caliphate? My guess is that these guys were anti-AQI (maybe Albu Mahal) during the Awakening, but grew disillusioned with the Maliki government, but who knows?
I've only scantly looked at the documents you're referring to, but 'Anbar Awakening' likely referred to ISI's counter Sahwa [Awakening] program. Islamic State would not refer to the Sahwa itself as 'jihad experience' due to their extreme hatred of it. During the 2009-13 period, ISI waged a systematic campaign against the Sahwa, part of which involved creating its own jihadi Sahwa councils to recruit tribesmen and tribal leaders. There is footage from this period of tribal leaders secretly pledging to ISI and aiding them. However, a significant portion [perhaps most] of IS's rank and file during 2013-15 in Iraq were ex Sahwa fighters who had indeed become disillusioned with the Maliki government's sectarianism. Maliki cut funding to the Sahwa and refused to give them jobs. During 2012-13, Sunnis protested this in a movement later called the 'Sunni Revolution.' It began as non-sectarian but was quickly IS-ified due to infiltration and latent sympathies. Maliki and Dawa made the worst possible choices every single time. The situation was so favorable to IS that it called the movement the 'Anbar Spring,' as a deliberate riff on Arab Spring. Unlike the insurgency in the 2000s, where Iraqi grassroots were not sectarian and often opposed it, in the 2010s, ordinary people had become bitterly sectarian. You can still find pictures and videos from Fallujah and Ramadi where people are proudly waving the infamous black flag - sometimes even in the presence of ISI fighters. - Rob
I have to admit, I do reserve a bit of respect for someone who can hold a good old-fashioned grudge.
I was mostly ho-hum on CIVIL WAR (par for the course w/ me and Alex Garland's films); I kind of thought it had a nice road movie vibe that hasn't been tried (to my knowledge) in some time. Much to my surprise the entire last 20-30 minutes (the DC finale), I thought was terrific stuff, well-choreographed action and bracing violence. And I thought the final scene was very well-judged. ("I need a quote" etc) Obviously YMMV on Garland enlisting Suicide's "Dream Baby Dream". (I didn't mind.)
I remember being so frustrated as a teenager arguing about the invasion of Iraq with parents and relatives, it was around this time (2004/2005) those arguments stopped. It was amazing how predictable what came after was and yet how smugly confident people in favour of the war were that everything would turn out great.
I remember in 2003 my dad telling me my generation was too impatient and that we just needed to let the invasion happen and wait to see what kind of WMD’s turned up
Absolutely amazing episode. Rob makes for a great guest, could listen to you three all the time!
nothing particular to say, i just really appreciate your podcast- thx
thank you!
great series so far and can’t wait for your Civil War ep. I have a love/hate relationship with the movie
Also I am confused as to why telescope audio does not have a high gain guitar amp.
I think Jon Elmer of Electronic Intifada would make an excellent guest.
As a part 3 to the Hamas series especially.
Please let me know which episode discusses the Toyotathon
What's the story there?
Red glasses is the delightful Jesse Plemons
the always good Jesse Plemons HOWEVER he has recently been photographed having dropped quite a bit of weight and, although objectively his newly svelte profile is very striking and impressive, he is nevertheless a TRAITOR to the Big Lad community of which I am a member and I will be consulting my attorneys to seek redress.