As a tribal chieftain in Iraq’s most rebellious city, Sheik Khamis el-Essawi has met more American commanders in the last seven months than he can remember. They all make the same polite yet firm demand. He must, they say, exert his legendary tribal authority to stop guerrilla attacks on their troops. Sheik Khamis, a dapper man whose Buessa tribe still controls a fine swath of fertile land along the Euphrates, says he keeps responding that, alas, his influence is just not what it used to be. “Every time a new general comes, they call us to a meeting and say the same things,” he said after conferring Saturday with the latest high-ranking visitor, Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of American forces in the Middle East. “But they don’t understand that the sheiks have no control over those people doing the attacks. Believe me, those people are not going to listen to me.” Full Story
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