Iraq: October 7, 2003

Archives

American military units along Iraq's borders have hired and trained members of local tribes to act as a border patrol. The tribes have "guarded" these borders for centuries, but often made deals with smugglers to take bribes and allow illegal crossings. The coalition troops have demanded that the smuggling stop, as the smugglers have been caught bringing in weapons foreigners eager to kill Americans. Because the border guards are getting paid more (over a hundred dollars a month) than Saddam ever did, and the coalition troops and their night vision equipment enable double checking of the patrols, the tribal border guards are giving the smugglers a hard time. 

X

ad

Help keep us a float!

Your support helps us keep our ship a float. We appreciate anyway you chose to help out. Visit us daily, subscribe, donate, and tell your friends.

You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  2. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
  3. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on X.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close