What Happens to Collaborators Post-Occupation?

History answers this question typically with the same answer; death. Unfortunately, this is what is facing the Sunni Arabs that were once our enemy, but chose to fight along side us against a common foe. Call them members of the Anbar Awakening or the Sons of Iraq, today they are left with fewer options. Political inclusion, exile, or death are the three roads they have as they hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

These are locals that risk life and limb for a foreign power. At the time it appeared the U.S. and Sunni Arabs had similar interests; defeating al Qaeda in Iraq, preventing a Sunni Arab genocide by Shia and Kurdish death squads and the Iraqi government security forces, and finally carving out a place for Sunni Arabs in the Iraqi national government. The U.S. temporarily achieved those goals, but as the in theater commanders like to put it, the situation is still fragile and reversible.

The great tragedy is that those that assisted the U.S. now feel abandoned and in many ways this perception is reality. The U.S. simply wants to leave with the country being somewhat stable. Right now, those that chose to ally with the U.S. are perceived as collaborators with an occupation. Some are in exile while others fear for their lives.

Here are two stories of perceived U.S. abandonment and the aftermath these Iraqis now have to deal with.

In Anbar, U.S.-Allied Tribal Chiefs Feel Deep Sense of Abandonment

U.S. closes door on a onetime Iraq ally