Mosul

I spent most of today reading about fighting in and around Mosul and the Baghdad government's ineffective attempts to exert control over the situation, only to have things slip beyond their control once they blinked. Specifically, I've been reading al-Azdi's account in History of Mosul of the tribal warfare there in the early 9th century and organizing the key points which interest me into what will become one of the final chapters in my dissertation. Back in those days you won support by distributing wealth to prominent leaders who filtered it on down to their followers. I read some of Iyad Allawi's political tactics as an attempt at something similar, but it clearly hasn't worked. Let's hope that this works out with minimal bloodshed on both sides.