10s of Thousands of Iraqis Protest Against U.S.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2589900
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of protesters demanded on Friday that the United States get out of Iraq, as U.S. troops arrested a fourth wanted aide of Saddam Hussein.
The demonstrators poured out of Friday prayers in Baghdad mosques chanting anti-American slogans and calling for an Islamic state to replace Saddam’s toppled government.
The protests on the Muslim holy day came as regional states met in Saudi Arabia to discuss a response to the Iraq war.
U.S. Central Command in Qatar said Iraqi Kurds had captured and handed over Samir Abul Aziz al-Najim, a senior Baghdad official of Saddam’s Baath Party, near Mosul in northern Iraq.
He was the fourth person to be detained from a U.S. list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis. U.S. Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told a news briefing Najim may have been posted to northern Iraq to take command of some military operations there.
In the first Friday prayers since U.S. tanks drove to the heart of Baghdad last week, a Muslim preacher said the United States had invaded to defend Israel and denied Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, a key justification Washington offered for the war.
No prayers were held last Friday. Followers of the preacher, Ahmed al-Kubaisi, carried Korans and waved banners that read “No to America. No to Secular State. Yes to Islamic State.”
“Leave our country, we want peace,” one banner read.
“This is not the America we know. The America we know respects international law, respects the right of people,” Kubaisi said.
do these people have any ability to think for themselves? do they consider the future? are they certain that Saddam and all his croonies are dead? how do they suppose they will defend themselves in the next few weeks if the coaltions forces pull out today? what happens when there is nothing left in the government buildings to loot? does Ahmed al-Kubaisi have only his future in mind? - maybe a nice position with the new Islamic State?