Iraqis stood their ground
02.15.2004A series of fedayeen attacks rocked Fallujah, Iraq, targeting Iraqi installations. The interesting story's buried in the article. The Iraqi police refused support from nearby American troops (most newspapers only wrote "US troops not involved"), but did ask for ammunition. After their victory, they proudly displayed the captured weapons. Could this be a turn in the tide? As Belmont Club writes:
That when dying and bleeding, beset by the flower of terrorism, with pistol to set against automatic rifle and grenade, the Iraqi police did not ask for help from 82nd Airborne. They asked for ammunition.
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UPDATE: Reader Scott Barnard adds: What's remarkable is that many of these so-called insurgents are obviously foreign.
And yet Al-Jazeera still portrays the fight as Iraqis fighting the collaborators.Two of the dead insurgents carried papers identifying them as Lebanese and one carried papers identifying him as Iranian, according to Iraqi and U.S. military officials.
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ADDENDUM: If you want to read some Iraqi perspectives, here are quite a few different ones. Also, it seems the first Iraqi municipal elections were a success.
Posted by Miguel at 09:35 PM
Comments
I recall that when the US invaded Iraq, some of my Arab friends who denounced Hussein as a "really bad guy," also told me that maybe someday they would fight against me to defend Arab lands.
The pan-Arab identity is totally mysterious to me. It apparently has dual identities of shame and pride. And never the twain shall meet.
I think that if the Arab world were ever to really unite, they would command a very powerful global voice.
Posted by: tom at February 16, 2004 11:06 PM
what really happens to me is that US. always wanted to do whatever IT want " thinking that they can rule the world" I am sure you ( US.) can be useful, but you have to undestand that no person would be happy if a foreign wants to do whatever he wants in his HOME LAND, for sure I will also fight against you.
But I think you don't care about my opinion cause US. IS ALWAYS RIGHT, you actually don't care about UN opinion,cause YOU'RE ALWAYS RIGHT.
Posted by: David at February 17, 2004 08:59 AM
Yes, pan-Arabism is like that. It was indoctrinated into young people at a very early age, and that kind of nationalism & xenophobia is really difficult to overcome. But. Notice that most of the resistance is from non-Iraqis, and the Arab fighters have turned their attention against Iraqis lately -- who, from what Iraqi bloggers attest, are now a pariah in the Middle East.
Posted by: Miguel at February 17, 2004 02:37 PM
Funny, David. Just a few years ago you desperately wanted to join the US armed forces as a way to immigrate to the US. What made you change your mind?
Posted by: Miguel at February 17, 2004 02:41 PM