There has been a recent article in Counterpunch magazine which has taken a look at the resistance in Iraq from it's very beginnings in 2003 after the US imperialist invasion. They have made a film called "Meeting The Resistance" in which they focus on eight individuals involved in the Iraqi resistance. There is a teacher, a wife, and a professor, among others. This film reveals that most involved in the Iraqi resistance are ordinary Iraqi's, and not so-called foreign fighters, or Al-Qieda.
For most of us even for many on the left it is still very confusing as to who exactly is involved in the Iraqi resistance, since most media reports just focus on the killings which take place without putting any of the violence in a proper context. 
One thing that should be obvious to most who have followed these events in Iraq is that the US imperialists realized that when they came in to occupy Iraq it was not going to be a cake walk, because of the resistance that they were coming up against, so as their response to this resistance, they needed to bring in what they called the "Salvador option."
One thing that should be obvious to most who have followed these events in Iraq is that the US imperialists realized that when they came in to occupy Iraq it was not going to be a cake walk, because of the resistance that they were coming up against, so as their response to this resistance, they needed to bring in what they called the "Salvador option."
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I have posted information about this on an earlier post "Resistance And Death Squads: What Is Really Happening In Iraq? " US imperialism just as British imperialism before them needs to divide a people in order to be able to conquer them. Although it is unclear at to who exactly is responsible for which violence, much of the violence that is directed at ordinary Iraqi people, whether it is indiscriminate bombing or the torture and dumping of
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bodies, is most likely being conducted by US imperial death squads, working along side hired mercenaries, and other collaborators with the US occupation. This is part of a US agenda which works to create an environment of chaos, fear, and sectarian divisions. Creating such an environment also plays into the US imperialist propaganda which claims that the US can't leave because if they do, Iraq would erupt into so-called civil war. And the US imperialist occupation of Iraq is the only thing which can prevent this from happening.
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This is why all those who oppose the US occupation of Iraq must also be supportive of the Iraqi resistance against it, no matter how imperfect the make up of that resistance may be.
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I am posting part of the Counterpunch article with a link to the article, and the website for the film, as well as part of an article about supporting the Iraqi resistance with a link to the complete article. Although I have some differences with some of this perspective, I am also posting an article from Uruknet in which a Baathist member of the Iraqi resistance offers an explanation about how US imperialism is trying to create divisions within the Iraqi resistance.
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And even though I don't completely agree with the perspective taken on this program, since the speaker does not fully implicate US imperialism for the creation, and perpetuation of civil strife in Iraq, I am re-posting this program since it does discuss the make up of this so called sectarianism, and mentions that Iraq was not a sectarian nation before the US imperial invasion and occupation, but was a secular nation, in which religious differences did not have a major influence in the Iraqi government
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This is unlike what is happening today in Iraq, in which US imperialism has intentionally set up a puppet regime based on elections which has divided people along religious and sectarian lines.
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An Interview with Steve Connors and Molly Bingham
Meeting the Resistance in Iraq
By KEVIN PROSEN
Meeting the Resistance in Iraq
By KEVIN PROSEN
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Meeting Resistance is an unprecedented new documentary that goes deep into the heart of the insurgency against American forces in Iraq. Over the course of ten months, journalists Steve Connors and Molly Bingham interviewed ten anonymous members of the resistance centered in the al-Adamiya neighborhood of Baghdad. Through candid interviews with the diverse members of the insurgency, the film calls into question many of the official myths about the Iraqi resistance promoted in the western press and lays bare the complex psychological, political, and religious motivations of the diverse groups and individuals which began organizing resistance cells almost immediately after the fall of Baghdad. I had a chance to speak with Steve Connors and Molly Bingham after the film's world premier at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival last weekend.
Meeting Resistance is an unprecedented new documentary that goes deep into the heart of the insurgency against American forces in Iraq. Over the course of ten months, journalists Steve Connors and Molly Bingham interviewed ten anonymous members of the resistance centered in the al-Adamiya neighborhood of Baghdad. Through candid interviews with the diverse members of the insurgency, the film calls into question many of the official myths about the Iraqi resistance promoted in the western press and lays bare the complex psychological, political, and religious motivations of the diverse groups and individuals which began organizing resistance cells almost immediately after the fall of Baghdad. I had a chance to speak with Steve Connors and Molly Bingham after the film's world premier at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival last weekend.
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To begin, could you please describe how you began reporting in Iraq?
To begin, could you please describe how you began reporting in Iraq?
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Molly Bingham I was in Iraq in March during the invasion. Steve and I both got into Baghdad not long after the statue fell and worked as freelance photographers until about June of 2003 when we took a break for six weeks. We started Meeting Resistance in August 2003.
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One of the stories I was working on as a freelancer was about places Saddam Hussein was seen before he disappeared. So I went to the Abu Hanifa mosque in the Adamiyeh neighborhood of Baghdad, where Saddam had reportedly been sighted. I met a gentleman who offered to show me around and I ended up chatting with him for a little while. After a while my translator told me he was in the resistance. I was surprised, like "that guy?" He was around fifty, had a paunch, mild mannered and gentle, welcoming to me as a foreigner there. I got back to the hotel and talked to Steve about it. We had started noticing small scale attacks against troops, and decided to look into it further.
One of the stories I was working on as a freelancer was about places Saddam Hussein was seen before he disappeared. So I went to the Abu Hanifa mosque in the Adamiyeh neighborhood of Baghdad, where Saddam had reportedly been sighted. I met a gentleman who offered to show me around and I ended up chatting with him for a little while. After a while my translator told me he was in the resistance. I was surprised, like "that guy?" He was around fifty, had a paunch, mild mannered and gentle, welcoming to me as a foreigner there. I got back to the hotel and talked to Steve about it. We had started noticing small scale attacks against troops, and decided to look into it further.
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What sort of dangers did you face working as "unembedded journalists" in Iraq?
What sort of dangers did you face working as "unembedded journalists" in Iraq?
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Steve Conners One was that we were approaching people who were clearly involved in violence, and were pretty dangerous; we didn't know if they were going to be dangerous to us. Our main defense was actually our defenselessness; it was Molly and me and a translator and a driver. We had no bodyguards, we just were hanging out and being what we are. When we first met each of the characters in the film, we were told by them in no uncertain terms if anything went wrong, which we took to mean if we were working for the American military or intelligence services, we would be killed. They knew where we lived.
Steve Conners One was that we were approaching people who were clearly involved in violence, and were pretty dangerous; we didn't know if they were going to be dangerous to us. Our main defense was actually our defenselessness; it was Molly and me and a translator and a driver. We had no bodyguards, we just were hanging out and being what we are. When we first met each of the characters in the film, we were told by them in no uncertain terms if anything went wrong, which we took to mean if we were working for the American military or intelligence services, we would be killed. They knew where we lived.
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Another was just generally being around Baghdad. There were bombs going off all over the place, lots of American convoys trucking around, they didn't take to kindly to anybody walking too close to a convoy. A lot of Iraqis were shot for driving too close to the convoys. Iraq was a very dangerous place even then.
Another was just generally being around Baghdad. There were bombs going off all over the place, lots of American convoys trucking around, they didn't take to kindly to anybody walking too close to a convoy. A lot of Iraqis were shot for driving too close to the convoys. Iraq was a very dangerous place even then.
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Did anything surprise you about the social and political makeup of the resistance?
Did anything surprise you about the social and political makeup of the resistance?
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MB: I think the thing we found was they were socially diverse, some had served in the military, some had not. There were some Sunni and some Shi'a, like the Traveler and the Syrian. What surprised us was in some ways how understandable, normal it was once you heard them explain what they were fighting for, their motivations. It started to make more sense. We didn't know what we would find, but that was a little bit surprising. They said "we are defending our land, we don't want to be occupied. Our honor is attacked by foreign troops on the soil."
MB: I think the thing we found was they were socially diverse, some had served in the military, some had not. There were some Sunni and some Shi'a, like the Traveler and the Syrian. What surprised us was in some ways how understandable, normal it was once you heard them explain what they were fighting for, their motivations. It started to make more sense. We didn't know what we would find, but that was a little bit surprising. They said "we are defending our land, we don't want to be occupied. Our honor is attacked by foreign troops on the soil."
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Generally their feeling wasn't anti-American hatred, or hatred of America "because of our freedom." It was because soldiers were on the ground. It wouldn't have mattered if those troops were French or Chinese or American.
Generally their feeling wasn't anti-American hatred, or hatred of America "because of our freedom." It was because soldiers were on the ground. It wouldn't have mattered if those troops were French or Chinese or American.
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SC: In some ways we were not surprised, in some ways we were really surprised. We were always on a learning curve. There was an amazing quote by the Teacher, it didn't make the final cut of the film. He said we want to have a good relationship with America, but send us your engineers or scholars, not your warriors who shoot the place up.
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You interview an Iraqi professor in this film who has studied the resistance cells. He describes their motivations as primarily nationalist and patriotic. Yet many of the people in the film refer to Islam as the banner that these groups form under. What is your impression of the role played by Islamic ideology among the resistance?
You interview an Iraqi professor in this film who has studied the resistance cells. He describes their motivations as primarily nationalist and patriotic. Yet many of the people in the film refer to Islam as the banner that these groups form under. What is your impression of the role played by Islamic ideology among the resistance?
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MB: Again, each individual in the film had a separate and unique personal experience as to their motivations. Some were largely nationalist, with a dash if Islam, and then there were changes. Within the film, there are slight contradictions or nuances where people joined for different reasons.
MB: Again, each individual in the film had a separate and unique personal experience as to their motivations. Some were largely nationalist, with a dash if Islam, and then there were changes. Within the film, there are slight contradictions or nuances where people joined for different reasons.
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In the beginning there was a very high nationalist attitude, or more secular, and later in the project we were beginning to pick up on a shift in tone, having a more Islamic foundation to it. It was a lot of talking to the Imam, around the time Saddam Hussein was caught. Basically he explained to us that because Iraq had become invaded by non-Muslims, it becomes imperative to fight Jihad. Nationalism folded into Islamic thinking. A lot of them had nationalist characteristics which converged with Islam.
In the beginning there was a very high nationalist attitude, or more secular, and later in the project we were beginning to pick up on a shift in tone, having a more Islamic foundation to it. It was a lot of talking to the Imam, around the time Saddam Hussein was caught. Basically he explained to us that because Iraq had become invaded by non-Muslims, it becomes imperative to fight Jihad. Nationalism folded into Islamic thinking. A lot of them had nationalist characteristics which converged with Islam.
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A question for activists:
Supporting Iraq’s right to resist occupation
January 21, 2005 Page 7
January 21, 2005 Page 7
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Socialist Worker columnist SHARON SMITH explains why you should support the Iraqi resistance.
Socialist Worker columnist SHARON SMITH explains why you should support the Iraqi resistance.
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THE IRAQI resistance to U.S. occupation is growing, as is its support among ordinary Iraqis. Iraq’s interim government recently admitted that the insurgency involves at least 40,000 “hardcore fighters” and up to 200,000 active sympathizers--a far cry from the isolated 5,000 “Baathist remnants” and “foreign fighters” the Pentagon initially claimed to be fighting.
THE IRAQI resistance to U.S. occupation is growing, as is its support among ordinary Iraqis. Iraq’s interim government recently admitted that the insurgency involves at least 40,000 “hardcore fighters” and up to 200,000 active sympathizers--a far cry from the isolated 5,000 “Baathist remnants” and “foreign fighters” the Pentagon initially claimed to be fighting.
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A USA Today/Gallup poll conducted in March concluded, “The insurgents...seem to be gaining broad acceptance, if not outright support. If the [pro-U.S.] Kurds, who make up about 13 percent of the poll, are taken out of the equation, more than half of Iraqis say killing U.S. troops can be justified in at least some cases.”
A USA Today/Gallup poll conducted in March concluded, “The insurgents...seem to be gaining broad acceptance, if not outright support. If the [pro-U.S.] Kurds, who make up about 13 percent of the poll, are taken out of the equation, more than half of Iraqis say killing U.S. troops can be justified in at least some cases.”
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That was shortly before the first siege on Falluja, in which U.S. forces killed over 600 civilians before the armed resistance drove them out. Support for the resistance can only have grown now that U.S. bombs have flattened Falluja, killing hundreds more civilians and driving 200,000 residents to live in the squalor of refugee camps--while dispersing the resistance fighters to other localities.
That was shortly before the first siege on Falluja, in which U.S. forces killed over 600 civilians before the armed resistance drove them out. Support for the resistance can only have grown now that U.S. bombs have flattened Falluja, killing hundreds more civilians and driving 200,000 residents to live in the squalor of refugee camps--while dispersing the resistance fighters to other localities.
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In mid-December, for example, Knight Ridder reported on a 41-year-old Iraqi woman, Kifah Khudhair, injured in a car bombing in Baghdad--whose rage was directed not at the car bombers, but at the Americans. “What can we do?” her son said. “These things happen every day, like looting and murder. I am angry at the Americans because it is all their fault. This is all because of them.”
In mid-December, for example, Knight Ridder reported on a 41-year-old Iraqi woman, Kifah Khudhair, injured in a car bombing in Baghdad--whose rage was directed not at the car bombers, but at the Americans. “What can we do?” her son said. “These things happen every day, like looting and murder. I am angry at the Americans because it is all their fault. This is all because of them.”
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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -IRAQIS SUPPORT the resistance against the U.S. occupation of their country for one simple reason: they want the Americans to get out--now.
Yet many in the U.S. antiwar movement have had difficulty accepting this black-and-white reasoning, preferring to see the world in shades of gray. “[Iraqi] jihadis or America’s terror-using hypocrites? If we are truly to stop the terrorists, the world must take sides against both,” wrote New Left veteran Steve Weissman recently on Truthout.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -IRAQIS SUPPORT the resistance against the U.S. occupation of their country for one simple reason: they want the Americans to get out--now.
Yet many in the U.S. antiwar movement have had difficulty accepting this black-and-white reasoning, preferring to see the world in shades of gray. “[Iraqi] jihadis or America’s terror-using hypocrites? If we are truly to stop the terrorists, the world must take sides against both,” wrote New Left veteran Steve Weissman recently on Truthout.
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This argument by Weissman is faulty on two counts.
First, Weissman equates the 500-pound bombs and high-tech weapons used by the world’s biggest superpower occupying Iraq (at the cost of $7.8 billion per month) to the rocket-propelled grenades and roadside bombs of those resisting that occupation. One side aims to control Iraq to fulfill its grand plan to dominate the Middle East and its oil. The other merely seeks the right for Iraqis to determine their own future.
First, Weissman equates the 500-pound bombs and high-tech weapons used by the world’s biggest superpower occupying Iraq (at the cost of $7.8 billion per month) to the rocket-propelled grenades and roadside bombs of those resisting that occupation. One side aims to control Iraq to fulfill its grand plan to dominate the Middle East and its oil. The other merely seeks the right for Iraqis to determine their own future.
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Some 100,000 Iraqi civilians are now estimated dead because of the war and occupation. This followed the roughly 1 million Iraqis killed from the deprivation caused by more than a decade of economic sanctions. And this followed a death toll of up to 200,000 in the 1991 Gulf War. Choosing sides should not be so difficult.Without for a moment endorsing the tactic of targeting civilians, which is used by parts of the resistance, the sheer magnitude of the death and destruction inflicted by the U.S. upon ordinary Iraqis should dispel any myth that the two sides in this war deserve equal condemnation.
Some 100,000 Iraqi civilians are now estimated dead because of the war and occupation. This followed the roughly 1 million Iraqis killed from the deprivation caused by more than a decade of economic sanctions. And this followed a death toll of up to 200,000 in the 1991 Gulf War. Choosing sides should not be so difficult.Without for a moment endorsing the tactic of targeting civilians, which is used by parts of the resistance, the sheer magnitude of the death and destruction inflicted by the U.S. upon ordinary Iraqis should dispel any myth that the two sides in this war deserve equal condemnation.
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Moreover, Weissman accepts at face value the Bush administration’s absurd characterization of the insurgency as dominated by “terrorists” and Islamic “extremists.”
Moreover, Weissman accepts at face value the Bush administration’s absurd characterization of the insurgency as dominated by “terrorists” and Islamic “extremists.”
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On December 15, the Boston Globe published a report by Molly Bingham, who lived from August 2003 until June 2004 in Baghdad researching the resistance. She observed, “The composition of the Iraqi resistance is not what the U.S. administration has been calling it, and the more it is oversimplified, the harder it is to explain its complexity. I met Shia and Sunnis fighting together, women and men, young and old. I met people from all economic, social and educational backgrounds.”
On December 15, the Boston Globe published a report by Molly Bingham, who lived from August 2003 until June 2004 in Baghdad researching the resistance. She observed, “The composition of the Iraqi resistance is not what the U.S. administration has been calling it, and the more it is oversimplified, the harder it is to explain its complexity. I met Shia and Sunnis fighting together, women and men, young and old. I met people from all economic, social and educational backgrounds.”
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She continued: “The original impetus for almost all of the individuals I spoke to was a nationalistic one--the desire to defend their country from occupation, not to defend Saddam Hussein or his regime.” Bingham’s conclusion should help focus the aims of every antiwar activist in the U.S.: “The resistance will continue until American influence has disappeared from Iraq’s political system.”
She continued: “The original impetus for almost all of the individuals I spoke to was a nationalistic one--the desire to defend their country from occupation, not to defend Saddam Hussein or his regime.” Bingham’s conclusion should help focus the aims of every antiwar activist in the U.S.: “The resistance will continue until American influence has disappeared from Iraq’s political system.”
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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -SUPPORT FOR the right of Iraqis to resist occupation must extend beyond an abstract principle for the U.S. antiwar movement.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -SUPPORT FOR the right of Iraqis to resist occupation must extend beyond an abstract principle for the U.S. antiwar movement.
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While recognizing “the right of the Iraqi people to resist as a point of principle,” Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies--in widely circulated notes for a speech to the steering committee of United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) on December 18--argued, “We should not call for ‘supporting the resistance’ because we don’t know who most of them are and what they really stand for, and because of those we do know, we mostly don’t support their social program beyond opposition to the occupation.”
While recognizing “the right of the Iraqi people to resist as a point of principle,” Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies--in widely circulated notes for a speech to the steering committee of United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) on December 18--argued, “We should not call for ‘supporting the resistance’ because we don’t know who most of them are and what they really stand for, and because of those we do know, we mostly don’t support their social program beyond opposition to the occupation.”
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To be meaningful, however, supporting the “right to resist” must include support for that resistance once it actually emerges.
To be meaningful, however, supporting the “right to resist” must include support for that resistance once it actually emerges.
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Award-winning Indian writer and global justice activist Arundhati Roy got to the heart of the issue in a San Francisco speech on August 16: “It is absurd to condemn the resistance to the U.S. occupation in Iraq, as being masterminded by terrorists,” she said. “After all, if the United States were invaded and occupied, would everybody who fought to liberate it be a terrorist?”
Award-winning Indian writer and global justice activist Arundhati Roy got to the heart of the issue in a San Francisco speech on August 16: “It is absurd to condemn the resistance to the U.S. occupation in Iraq, as being masterminded by terrorists,” she said. “After all, if the United States were invaded and occupied, would everybody who fought to liberate it be a terrorist?”
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If we are waiting for the “ideologically pure” movement--assuming the unlikely scenario that all those opposed to the war could agree on one--we could be waiting forever.
If we are waiting for the “ideologically pure” movement--assuming the unlikely scenario that all those opposed to the war could agree on one--we could be waiting forever.
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April 18, 2007Salah al-Mukhtar was a prominent Baathist in the late Saddam era, serving in diplomatic positions in India, Vietnam and the UN, and although he doesn't have an official position currently, he often comments on the Iraq war from a Baathist perspective.
April 18, 2007Salah al-Mukhtar was a prominent Baathist in the late Saddam era, serving in diplomatic positions in India, Vietnam and the UN, and although he doesn't have an official position currently, he often comments on the Iraq war from a Baathist perspective.
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This article was published on the resistance website albasrah.net April 15, and a commenter suggested this would be a good introduction to a point of view that doesn't get much coverage here in the anglosphere. And it is hard to argue with that.One of his major points is that it seems to him that at the point when the Americans realized they were in trouble militarily, they came up with the idea of covertly helping the takfiris attack other Iraqis, as a way of helping turn the war against the occupation into an Iraqi-on-Iraqi war. Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, this writer implies, without mentioning the name, is a likely a nobody who rose to prominence with covert American aid.His title is "From the blowing up of bridges to the attempts to split the resistance: what's going on in Iraq?"
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Al-Mukhtar begins by talking about the recent blowing up of two major bridges over the Tigris in Baghdad, and the intensified popular sense of foreboding this caused, because it suggests to people the idea of Iraqi partition extending to the heart of Baghdad, and it suggests too the idea that there are some with a strategy of not leaving stone upon stone, and finishing the work of destruction that the Americans began.
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He then segues to the execution of Saddam and his associates, with its "artificial creation of a sectarian atmosphere", the idea being that these apparently separate events, and many others, are part and parcel of a scheme to foster sectarian warfare, split the resistance, and weaken the country to the point where the occupation can succeed. The Saddam execution was followed by an attempt by a group in Syria to split the Baath, and American-led persecution of the Party and its members and supporters throughout Iraq. The writer goes on:
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And in addition to the attempts to attack the name of the [Baath] Party, the American Mukhabarat has undertaken another project, this one with the clear support of Iran, whether by direct arrangement or by a meeting of the minds, namely the plan to cause fighting between factions of the Iraqi jihad, by encouraging Islamist takfiris within some of the factions to announce their intention to monopolize, from now on, the control of Iraq or at least of the field of jihad, giving the other factions the choice of having their necks cut, or pledging allegiance to them and proceeding under their leadership--and that even though they only represented a small group! Likewise other members took to applying takfir to the progressive and arabist nationalist factions. ...And they went so far as to kill dozens of military cadres fighting against the occupation from among the Baathists and arabists, for the purpose of igniting a fight among the jihadi factions, serving in this way the primary purpose of America and Iran, namely the division of the Iraqi resistance, because that is the basic prerequisite for turning the American defeat in Iraq into victory.
And in addition to the attempts to attack the name of the [Baath] Party, the American Mukhabarat has undertaken another project, this one with the clear support of Iran, whether by direct arrangement or by a meeting of the minds, namely the plan to cause fighting between factions of the Iraqi jihad, by encouraging Islamist takfiris within some of the factions to announce their intention to monopolize, from now on, the control of Iraq or at least of the field of jihad, giving the other factions the choice of having their necks cut, or pledging allegiance to them and proceeding under their leadership--and that even though they only represented a small group! Likewise other members took to applying takfir to the progressive and arabist nationalist factions. ...And they went so far as to kill dozens of military cadres fighting against the occupation from among the Baathists and arabists, for the purpose of igniting a fight among the jihadi factions, serving in this way the primary purpose of America and Iran, namely the division of the Iraqi resistance, because that is the basic prerequisite for turning the American defeat in Iraq into victory.
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The writer then explains the meaning of the expression "moles" in organizations like these. And he says what has been going on is this:
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The Americans,
Once they understood that they had well and truly fallen into the Iraqi trap, from which they wouldn't emerge safely unless they could come up with an elaborately thought-out scheme, started putting moles in specific factions, and via these moles they offered the groups generous material and PR support. This enhanced the credibility of these moles, and raised their profile and role within these factions, and some of them came to have leadership roles within those factions. Without mentioning names, it is pretty clear he is referring to people like Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, a person no one had ever heard of before, who suddenly emerged as the emir of the Islamic State of Iraq.Overlooking this role of agents, the writer says, would be a fateful error no matter how you look at it. And he asks:
Once they understood that they had well and truly fallen into the Iraqi trap, from which they wouldn't emerge safely unless they could come up with an elaborately thought-out scheme, started putting moles in specific factions, and via these moles they offered the groups generous material and PR support. This enhanced the credibility of these moles, and raised their profile and role within these factions, and some of them came to have leadership roles within those factions. Without mentioning names, it is pretty clear he is referring to people like Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, a person no one had ever heard of before, who suddenly emerged as the emir of the Islamic State of Iraq.Overlooking this role of agents, the writer says, would be a fateful error no matter how you look at it. And he asks:
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Why is it that there was never, ever, any disclosure of any new American agents after the original disclosure of the roles of the old agents Allawi, Hakim, Chalabi and the others? Are they the only agents, or are their other agents who are more important because they operate within the national ranks and haven't been exposed yet?
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The writer then compares the role of moles in the jihadi organizations to that of Iran in the macro picture, in the sense that Iran
...appears with the appearance of opposing America for the good of the cause of Islam and Palestine...[but] this is in preparation for dividing [Iraqis and Palestinians] and changing the fight from a fight for liberation against America and Israel, into sectarian fights between muslims, instead of focusing all guns on the Zionists and the Americans.As far as Iraq is concerned, the writer says, the result has been that most attacks carried out by these groups are now against Iraqis, Shiite and Sunni, and not against the occupation forces except peripherally.America has spent a lot on this war, and that in Afghanistan, but since success would give them control over the world's major oil reserves, and and with it a global dictatorship, the price will have been cheap considering the result.
...appears with the appearance of opposing America for the good of the cause of Islam and Palestine...[but] this is in preparation for dividing [Iraqis and Palestinians] and changing the fight from a fight for liberation against America and Israel, into sectarian fights between muslims, instead of focusing all guns on the Zionists and the Americans.As far as Iraq is concerned, the writer says, the result has been that most attacks carried out by these groups are now against Iraqis, Shiite and Sunni, and not against the occupation forces except peripherally.America has spent a lot on this war, and that in Afghanistan, but since success would give them control over the world's major oil reserves, and and with it a global dictatorship, the price will have been cheap considering the result.
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It would be naive, the writer says, to think that everyone who fights America or Israel in Iraq or in Palestine is necessarily engaged in struggle or jihad. Because you have to look at the final result, and not at half-way results. You can't judge military efforts against the occupation except in the light of real aims and real results, and the one necessary condition for victory in Iraq is maintenance of the unity of the resistance, just as the one necessary condition for the occupation to succeed is to split the resistance.
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The writer offers a couple of observations in conclusion:
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The first observation is that at the same time that the American Mukhabarat toughens its campaign against the Baath by various means...[including] its extreme efforts to dry up the sources of funding for the Party and its resistance, and its arrest of tens of thousands of its fighters and mujahideen, at the same time it is making life easier in a remarkable way for the sectarian Sunni takfiris, offering them financial and military support, whether directly, or channeled via the Gulf, and this at a time when their takfir is being intensified against the nationalists and the patriots and the true Islamists....
The first observation is that at the same time that the American Mukhabarat toughens its campaign against the Baath by various means...[including] its extreme efforts to dry up the sources of funding for the Party and its resistance, and its arrest of tens of thousands of its fighters and mujahideen, at the same time it is making life easier in a remarkable way for the sectarian Sunni takfiris, offering them financial and military support, whether directly, or channeled via the Gulf, and this at a time when their takfir is being intensified against the nationalists and the patriots and the true Islamists....
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People shouldn't lose sight of this for even a moment, the writer says, because what this American strategy amounts to as an attempt to change the war from one against the occupation to a sectarian Shiite-Sunni war, which will not stop until the sectarian takfiri power is the dominant one in Iraq.
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And this is particularly ungent for Baathists to understand, because the first requisite for this American strategy is the crushing of the Baath Party, conceptually, organizationally, financially, etcetera, because the Baath is the only nationalist party that covers all of Iraq and includes Sunnis, Shiites and others.His second concluding observation is that Iran, even though it is naturally an enemy of the Sunni takfiris, still provides them with support and assistance in their attacks on Iraqi Shiites, and the reason is to make the Iraqi Shiites side with Iran, in a way that will ultimately further feed the conversion of this war into a sectarian one, in order to weaken the country.
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Program:
A look at the history of sectarian divisions in Iraq and the role the current US occupation has played in perpetuating communal strife. With Middle East scholar Stephen Zunes
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For other relevant audio programs also go to another previous post
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