For any of you who are still on the fence about whether the Iraqi “resistance” are freedom fighters or terrorist thugs, here’s more evidence on their true character.
Driving into the middle of a funeral procession to kill more civilians is getting pretty low on the primate scale.
KHALIS, Iraq (Reuters) - A suicide bomber exploded a car in the middle of a funeral gathering in an Iraqi town north of Baghdad Tuesday, killing six people and wounding 35.
The blast in Khalis, about 50 miles from Baghdad, was the bloodiest guerrilla attack in Iraq since an interim government took charge from U.S.-dominated administration on June 28.
A senior police commander was among those wounded in the attack on the funeral for the brother of the town’s mayor, police said. Tents had been erected in the street to shelter mourners paying condolences to the man’s family.
“A suicide bomber drove right into the funeral gathering and his car exploded,” said witness Ghassan Sabah Kadhem.
FULL STORY http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5599667&pageNumber=0
theoretically there could be diff groups working independently, if not now atleast initially who later joined forces because of a common foe.
In such a case if there were resistance groups just fighting against the occupying force would they be terrorist thugs or freedom fighters?
Since we are coming up with rosy and wonderful 'what ifs'...
What if these killers (terrorists or freedom fighters) put their energies toward a political solution within the framework of a government that allows a million times for freedom than the previous government instead of killing people?
Seminole
this is not a rosy what if, because if we wanted to paint rosy what ifs there would be no limits. This was a scenario painted by some retired general/analst/talking head on the morning news on my drive in. I dont need to express my disdain for these suicide bombers each time because it gets repetitive and boring :)
what is niether proven or disproven is that are there groups who are not into religious extremism but would be against foriegn forces, its probable and possible, is that the case I have not seen compelling evidence to either prove or disprove it. The old baathists for example were secular, and would be against US forces, not the way that Zarqawi & co would be, however in this case one goal is common among these 2 groups, which were otherwise bitter enemies. additionally there are other groups like muqtadas which was something on its own.
No disagreements on what could be a good use of their efforts now that an Iraqi govt is announced and efforts are underway to have a representative govt that would not follow the ills of the previosu regime.
^ The best way to end the occupation in the shortest period of time is to bring security to the country. The best way to prolong it is to shoot, bomb, behead and murder people (be they American soldiers or others).
Thus, even groups who might have confined themselves to shooting American soldiers as opposed to other Iraqis (I'm not sure there were or are any such groups) in reality would be working against the objective of freedom and the end to occupation.
Only the dimmest bulb in the chandelier could think the US has the desire to keep an occupying army in Iraq for any lengthy period of time. If you want to be an Iraqi Freedom Fighter, stop shooting people, support the new government in the path of elections, and start building water treatment plants instead of destroying them. You'll be amazed at how fast you'd see the backsides of American soldiers "retreating" to the USA.
MV
no question about it, as long as the population at large feels that the new govt is a representative govt. In such a case any real rebel with some sense would see this as a step in the right direction..
the 2 questions then are
1) do real freedom fighters (if there are such) see the new govt as a real govt or local faces for foriegn occupation
2) are there any freedom fighters or are they all extremists having a ball with the instability.
I would think that both of these could be in play, and the groups could be working independentlyusing their separate tactics for their own agendas or cooperating due to one common foe
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Fraudz: *
MV
no question about it, as long as the population at large feels that the new govt is a representative govt. In such a case any real rebel with some sense would see this as a step in the right direction..
the 2 questions then are
1) do real freedom fighters (if there are such) see the new govt as a real govt or local faces for foriegn occupation
2) are there any freedom fighters or are they all extremists having a ball with the instability.
I would think that both of these could be in play, and the groups could be working independentlyusing their separate tactics for their own agendas or cooperating due to one common foe
[/QUOTE]
I think there are freedom fighters in Iraq. They are the guys going to work everyday for the Iraqi police. They go out to repair damaged oil pipelines. They open their stores every day for other Iraqis to buy their wares. They take positions of authority so that a government with an Iraqi face exists. They do all this under the threat of seeing some thug blow them up with a car packed with explosives.
As to your #1 above, as I said, I think it takes a pretty dim bulb to view the interim Iraqi government as a face of foreign occupation. The faster and more that government succeeds, the shorter the term of occupation. Further, the "success" of THAT government is partly measured by how short its existence is.
^ MV not being in their shoes we dont know how they would perceive things, one can say that they may think that it would take a dim bulb to not see the new govt as a local front for an occupying force...its all a matter of perspective and their perspective may be different than yours or mine or for a majority of their countrymen for that matter. A skewed perspective however does not equate them to the same group as the extremists of zarqawi & co variety.
not to disagree with you that the real ppl with courage are those who are going about building their country even under constant threats to their llives..
17 more Iraqi's killed? The Ummah gives a collective yawn at this Muslim-on-Muslim violence continues...
^ okay okay so let me post me requisite post again to prove yet once again that this is lame.
This violence is lame and has to stop. the extremists need to be controlled by those in charge, in this case our military that is there.
I think the 'collective Yawn" is due to the fact that we got into a theoretical discussion of whether or not there are iraqi freedom fighters who are not extremists.