U.S. troops fix bayonets against Iraqi crowd - 10,000 Shia's march against occupation

[Malik73]

*Originally posted by Nadia_H: *
i am not certain whether anyone in this Forum has yet mentioned that, last Tuesday, Kofi Annan called for a date to the end of this British/American occupation: “There is a pressing need to set out a clear and specific sequence of events leading to the end of military occupation.” More and more Iraqis, both Sunnis as well as Shia’s, are beginning to grow disenchanted with their country’s occupation, particularly since more emphasis seems to have been given to setting up sham councils, filled with puppets, and securing oil ministries, rather than restoring the city’s infrastructures and organizing salary payments for the millions of Iraq’s middle classes.

Resistance has its roots in the present, Jonathan Steele
The Guardian, 25 July 2003

Yes, I read what Kofi Annan had said, at least he realises the level of growing resentment across Iraq against the US occupation. The latest is that US troops have (yet again) been shooting at protesting crowds:-

In a reminder that tensions are not restricted to Saddam’s Sunni Muslim heartlands north and west of the capital, troops were forced to fire in the air to disperse a stone-throwing crowd in the Shi’ite holy city of Kerbala to the south on Sunday. Locals accused troops of killing a man on Saturday.](http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=0GZV2L3MBZRAQCRBAEKSFFA?type=topNews&storyID=3165376)

[underthedome]

Don't throw stones at people with guns in a warzone, they look like grenades and you will likely be shot.

[xguru]

The U.S. is in a difficult position. This is what happens when they ignore the world sentiments and rush to war. Well, now they are in the thick of things. Hopefully the troops can withdraw soon and a coalition of OIC countries can move in to help keep the peace. I don't know if the Iraqi's will even tolerate that, but for sure they will never tolerate western troops in their country. No matter how good their intentions are.

All I can say is that things are pretty messed up right now and the U.S. is paying for it in money and blood.

The Iraqi's are suffering too. A lot of anger and frustation that was suppressed is venting out right now, and the people holding the guns are Americans. A common Iraqi has nothing in common with Americans. The Americans don't speak thier language, don't understand their culture and religion and in most cases don't understand the level of their plight. The biggest worry for the common American soldier is when do I go home. So incidents like these are going to happen.

[Malik73]

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by underthedome: *
Don't throw stones at people with guns in a warzone, they look like grenades and you will likely be shot.
[/QUOTE]

Don't carry guns and grenades, and you won't be seen as such as a menace. In fact don't occupy someone's else's country and you won't be such a target.

[spoon]

An interesting progression …](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/july0304.html#072703453pm)
But doing it as the Bush administration now intends is something like going outside and giving a few good whacks to a hornets’ nest because you want to get them out in the open and have it out with them once and for all.
“Practice to Deceive”
Joshua Micah Marshall
Washington Monthly
April 2003

Being based in Iraq helps us not only because of actual bases; but because the American presence there diverts terrorist attention away from elsewhere. By confronting them directly in Iraq, we get to engage them in a military setting that plays to our strengths rather than to theirs’. Continued conflict in Iraq, in other words, needn’t always be bad news. It may be a sign that we are drawing the terrorists out of the woodwork and tackling them in the open.
“Bring Them On”
Andrew Sullivan

The Dish

July 3rd, 2003

Separately, Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, commander of coalition ground forces, told CNN that “we still have a long way to go” before eliminating resistance.

Iraq had become “a terrorist magnet,” drawing some anti-American extremists from abroad to “a target of opportunity.”

“But this,” General Sanchez added, “is exactly where we want to fight them.”

“(http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/27/international/worldspecial/27CND-POLI.html)”
International Herald Tribune
July 27th, 2003

The trio of](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/july0304.html#072803228pm) quotations listed [above] called attention to the growing popularity of what conservatives are now calling the “flypaper” theory of our presence in Iraq.

The thinking goes something like this. These guerilla engagements we’re seeing in Iraq may not be such a bad thing. What we’re doing is attracting all the terrorists to Iraq (i.e., like “flypaper”) so that a) they won’t be attacking us in America and b) we can fight them there on our own terms. As Andrew Sullivan put it early this month, “Continued conflict in Iraq, in other words, needn’t always be bad news. It may be a sign that we are drawing the terrorists out of the woodwork and tackling them in the open.”

Now I can imagine a number of problems with this approach – moral, tactical and strategic.

But isn’t the main fallacy that there isn’t some finite number of “terrorists” out there whom we can draw to one place, kill or arrest, and then be done with it? I mean, let’s be honest: Is there really any shortage of these dudes? Are they gonna run out?

Do you remember Afghanistan? Not this ‘Afghanistan’, but the last ‘Afghanistan.’ The US-Pakistan-backed jihad against the Soviets made Afghanistan into a sort of jihad Club- Med where young Saudis could go for a few weeks or months of firing guns and fighting for God. (Of course, some stayed on rather longer.)

The idea is supposed to be to drain the swamp, not create a new swamp and spend all your time swatting all the mosquitoes that come to hang out and breed.

As a reader (Tom R.) wrote last night in an email to TPM, the “flypaper” theory makes about as much sense as a public health director saying “By creating a dirty hospital, we’re going to create a place where we can fight the germs on our terms.”

[spoon]

Anyway, on that last post, how's that for a new Army recruitment theme??