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Found this article via FOB Tacoma. It talks about the situation in Diyala soon to be inherited by the 4/2 SBCT.
By Robert W. Gee, Austin American Statesman
MUQDADIYAH, Iraq — The sheiks finished arguing and posturing, and Col. David Sutherland, who had been scowling for an hour, stood and spoke.
"I agree that there is much suspicion in Diyala. That suspicion creates anxiety and violence," Sutherland said, his words translated by an Army interpreter at a recent meeting of two feuding tribes in Diyala, a religiously and ethnically mixed province northeast of Baghdad.
He urged the Tamimis, who are predominantly Shiites, and the Jabouris, who are Sunnis, to patch up their differences.
"Spread the word throughout the land that the Jabouris and the Tamimis reject al Qaeda and reject the militias and will work together," he said. "Work as brothers. Let your hearts and God be your guiding principle."
It was the latest in a series of tribal interventions by Sutherland, commander of the Fort Hood-based 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division. He has presided over one of the recent bright spots in the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
Within a couple of hours, the Jabouris and the Tamimis had hammered out an eight-point, handwritten agreement in which they forswore violence against each other and U.S. troops, renounced al Qaeda and sectarian militias, and established a tribal council to further negotiate their differences.
It was signed by the top sheiks present from both sides, as well as the provincial governor.
Sutherland has parlayed military might into diplomacy, enlisting the support of 19 of the province's 25 major tribes and restoring a degree of security, with the help of Iraqis themselves, to a once-restive province.
[...]