TS,
I'm aware that Pressfield isn't the first to have conceived of this. I try to keep informed and have read sev'l books on Iraq and on Arab culture.
There was an article, IIRC in the NYT Magazine, two or three years ago about an SF officer who had mapped the various tribal areas within Iraq and I recall thinking that a bicameral (sp?) government in Iraq should perhaps have one house based on the tribal boundaries and the second on nationwide elections. (And had I been proconsul that may well have happened
)
Another example I recall reading of, was al-Zarqawi's near capture ten or twelve months before his death. His bodyguard had said that before he bailed he was frantically asking "What tribes are in this area, who are the sheiks, what are the sub tribes?"
What I wonder, though, is if, particularly as Pressfield has written, this isn't an oversimplification. The Shi'a vs. Sunni schism, rivalries within tribes, geography, "enlightened self interest", and other factors certainly play a part. IIRC, "Reckoning" described a national identity having emerged within Iraq and we do see some evidence of this, despite the sectarian violence.
So, I was curious whether those who have actually been in Iraq (or Afghanistan, as for the purposes of this discussion I think they are roughly analagous), felt this was a reasonable assessment on Pressfield's part, or whether "It's the Tribes, Stupid" is a dangerous oversimplification.
