Friday, December 05, 2003

Interview with the resistance

Here

Yet more evidence that those who claim that the resistance are "Baathist dead-enders" or "Saddam-lovers" have their heads up their arses. These people don't love Saddam - they explicitly say they'll fight him if he returns - instead they're pissed that the Americans are running their country, and at their treatment by American soldiers:

Another incident soured Abu Mujhid on the occupation, he says. When a Humvee passed him and his friends one night while they were standing around drinking tea, the soldiers got out and accused them of having yelled obscenities at the troops.

"They cuffed our hands and one soldier kicked me," he says. "Then they released us because we had done nothing. It was that night I went and got my gun. The next night I shot the soldier that kicked me. But his (body armor) protected him. I don't think he died."

There are ways the US can solve this. Actually delivering on the promise of democracy (first at a local level, then at a national one) without trying to stack the result is an obvious step. But the easiest way would be to moderate the behaviour of their own troops so that they don't mistreat the people they're supposed to be protecting. Preventing incidents like the above would deny the resistance their largest source of recruits, and go a long way towards "drying up the sea".

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