[lbo-talk] Interesting Geras post on the "the resistance"

Stephen E Philion philion at hawaii.edu
Thu Apr 22 12:24:06 PDT 2004


Luke wrote: I was under the impression that the resistance was gaining popular support--but Norm's post reminded that there really isn't any evidence supporting that conclusion other than the rising body count. Of course, maybe Ali and Pax are only seeing what they want to see, but their vantage point is surely better than ours.

---hmmm, maybe Ali and ol' Norm have to start reading the invader's newspaper of record ? steve

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/22/international/middleeast/22MOOD.html

When asked about their thoughts on the recent surge in violence in Iraq, none of the people interviewed mentioned the deadly attacks in Basra on Wednesday that killed at least 68 people, including 23 schoolchildren. Nor did anyone mention that guerrilla fighters were trying to undermine any national stability. And no one talked about the ouster of Saddam Hussein and his brutal dictatorship a year ago.

Instead, several people running businesses along Outer Karada pointed first to Falluja, 35 miles to the west, where marines are trying to rout undisciplined but determined Iraqi fighters.

"Frankly, we started to hate the Americans for that," Towfeek Hussein, 36, an electronics salesman, said of the siege of Falluja as he sat behind a desk in his shop. "The Americans will hit any family. They just don't care. Children used to wave to the American soldiers when their patrols passed by here. Two days ago, the children turned their faces away."

More than anything else, Falluja has become a galvanizing battle, a symbol around which many Iraqis rally their anticolonial sentiments. Some say the fighting there exposes the lie of American justice by showing that the world's sole superpower is ready to avenge the killings and mutilation of four American security contractors by sending marines to shell and invade a city of 300,000 people.



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