Doug wrote:
> Two people have asked you, and I'll ask you again: the French people
> killed by the resistance - were they caught in the crossfire,
> collaborators, or members of competing branches of the resistance?
> And what was the ratio of French to Germans? In Iraq, it seems to be
> about 30/1, or maybe 300/1, Iraqis to Americans.
I've missed much of this discussion, and it looks like an essential argument to me, so apologies if I tread on anything anyone else has already said. I would make the following points:
a) the statistics show that most attacks that occur in Iraq are directed at the occupiers (about 75%) b) the second largest group of attacks is directed at civilians. c) the third largest group is directed at Iraqi security forces. (1)
The fact that the attacks on Iraqis are disproportionately effective results directly from the fact that the occupiers are strapped with guns, hoisted up in military convoys when they're not hiding in the Green Zone. There are some elements of the resistance who have used tactics such as suicide attacks on queues of those signing up for the puppet police or army, and there are others who have orchestrated sectarian attacks on Shiites. The former were initially quite effective in thwarting the state-building process, such as it was, but have also contributed the very slow way in which the popularity of the resistance has increased (the last polls showed 60% of all Iraqis, including Kurds, support resistance attacks). (2)
Aside from the civil war dynamic which is unfolding, there is a an enormous and intensifying counterinsurgency operation unfolding with the use of the brutal special police commandos, who have tortured, drilled and shot people before leaving them dumped. These are usually attributed to Shiite controllers, but the truth is that the SPC were created by the US military and the CIA, and continue to be led by the US military, who utilise them in various counterinsurgency sweeps. A huge amount of these bodies that are turning up are going to be the result of coalition activity, in other words. (3)
1) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5052138.stm 2) http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2497076&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312 3) http://leninology.blogspot.com/2006/11/those-special-police-commandos.html _________________________________________________________________ Be one of the first to try Windows Live Mail. http://ideas.live.com/programpage.aspx?versionId=5d21c51a-b161-4314-9b0e-4911fb2b2e6d