Highly Imformative

Submitted by Avraham (United States), Apr 14, 2004 at 01:36

This article provides the historical information that few if no others have offered concerning the US-led occupation of Iraq, and it has particularly good insights about resistance to America's policies within the context of Muslim political history.

Too many media pundits, and even some experts, refer to the Iraqi resistance as a popular, nationalistic "uprising." In short, the term "intifada" does not mean uprising so much as it means "shaking off," that is, of non-Muslim influence and values. Thus, the "War on Terror" is a misnomer of strategic consequences, and the US must now focus on spreading ideas primarily indirectly, through pro-US Muslims, if it wishes to achieve long-term, secure and mutually productive relations with the Muslim world.

The only things I would add to the analysis here are a) the heavy role of Iran and Syria as state-sponsors of terrorism - largely via arch-terror mastermind Imad Mugniyah - in the Iraqi resistance; b) the difference between the widespread radical Islamic sentiments in Iraq (and elsewhere) and the ability to politicize and make actionable those sentiments (i.e. through state-sponsorship of terrorism); c) the fact that withdrawing from Iraq's cities, as you suggest, will be increasingly difficult now that - as Debka.com has revealed - bin Laden and co. have decided to try to keep the US in Iraq's cities as long as possible (to make for easy targets) while now refraining from attacking Iraqi civilians and their infrastructure; d) the fact that, Muslim or not, most people care more about job security and their children's education than about politics.

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