[Peace-discuss] Jeffrey Gettleman w/NY Times reports from Iraq

[Randall Cotton]

[ Below is an example of the reports coming from Jeffrey Gettleman at the
Times, who has somehow successfully negotiated direct contact with actual
insurgent groups. This is the Times reporter I mentioned at the meeting
today. I've seen a few of these reports (not just from Gettleman) that cover
actual insurgents and they are all extremely ominous. This, in conjuction
with numerous reports showing strong coalescence between Shiites and Sunnis
uniting together to oppose the occupation (particularly regarding Fallujah)
convincingly portend a permanent long-term massive insurgency against the
occupation. - RC]

April 11, 2004
Anti-U.S. Outrage Unites a Growing Iraqi Resistance
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 11 . Moneer Munthir is ready to kill Americans.
For months, he has been struggling to control an explosion of miserable
feelings: humiliation, fear, anger, depression.  "But in the last
two weeks, these feelings blow up inside me," said Mr. Munthir, a
35-year-old laborer. "The Americans are attacking Shiite and Sunni at
the same time. They have crossed a line. I had to get a gun."  Ahmed,
a 29-year-old man with elegant fingers and honey-colored eyes, has been
planting bombs inside dead dogs and leaving them on the highway. He and
a team of helpers have been especially busy recently.  "We start work
after 11 p.m.," Ahmed said. "Our group is small, just friends, and we
don't even have a name."  Khalif Juma, a 26-year-old vegetable seller,
said he and his cousins bought a crate of Kalashnikov rifles last week.
"To be honest, we weren't like this before," he said. "But we're religious
people, and our leader has been threatened. We would be ashamed to stay
in our houses with our wives at a time like this."  A new surge of Iraqi
resistance is sweeping up thousands of people, Shiite and Sunni, in a loose
coalition united by overwhelming anti-Americanism. On March 31, insurgents
in Falluja ambushed four civilian contractors and mutilated their bodies,
and the fiery words of Moktada al-Sadr, the young radical Shiite cleric,
a few days later prompted violent uprisings in four cities.  In Baghdad,
Kufa, Najaf, Baquba and Falluja, interviews with Sunnis and Shiites alike
show a new corps of men, and a few women, who have resolved to join
the resistance. They also reveal a generation of young people inured
to violence and hankering to join in the fighting.  There is no way to
estimate the size of the mushrooming insurgent force, but demonstrations
in several cities by armed and angry people indicate that it probably
runs in the tens of thousands. Many people said they did not consider
themselves full-time freedom fighters or mujahedeen; they have jobs in
vegetable shops, offices, garages and schools.  But when the time comes,
they say, they line up behind their leaders . with guns.  "I'm in my shop
right now but if anything happens, I'll close up and take my weapon and
join them," Mr. Juma said. "I'm ready."  Several people described a loose
command structure. Mr. Juma said he supported Mr. Sadr but is not part
of his militia, the Mahdi Army. He said he received instructions from an
imam at a mosque near Kufa.  American officials have announced an arrest
warrant for Mr. Sadr, who had entrenched himself in his hometown, Kufa, in
southern Iraq, last weekend, then disappeared.  Many Iraqis have weapons,
in part because the American-led occupiers have often failed to protect
them from looters and other criminals. Now, people are taking their guns
into the streets.  Ala Muhammad is a 24-year-old mechanic in Baghdad. He
likes to work on trucks.  The other day, when trouble broke out in the
predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Khadamiya, he dashed home from
work, grabbed a clip for his Kalashnikov and took it out front.  "If the
Americans come this way, we will fight them," Mr. Muhammad said. "I'm
going to defend my house, my street, my land, my religion."  He stood on
the sidewalk in sweat pants, without shoes.  "I like to fight barefoot,"
he said.  Mr. Muhammad said he recently joined the Mahdi Army. And
while some of his neighbors watched him admiringly as he strapped on an
ammunition belt and gulped down a glass of water before a battle started,
others scowled.  "Many of these young men are just criminals," said Adil
Hassan, a contractor. "We don't want them. We don't want their guns. The
problem is, more and more are coming."  A whole generation of Iraqi youth
is coming of age in the bitter heart of the resistance. When the four
American security consultants were ambushed and killed in Falluja, it was a
mob of boys that set the bodies on fire and dragged two to a bridge where
they hung them over the Euphrates River.  Soran Karim, a 16-year-old with
thick, man-size hands, said killing Americans was not just a good thing.
"It is the best thing," said Soran, outside a Falluja school. "They are
infidels, they are aggressive, they are hunting our people."  His friend
spoke up.  "We just want to play football . or marbles," said Omar Hadi,
12. "But the soldiers don't let us go out."  Another boy, Suhail Najim, 13,
added: "We may be scared of their weapons. But we're not scared of them."
A few days after the contractors were killed, United States marines
invaded Falluja, 35 miles west of Baghdad, in a major offensive to wipe
out the insurgents behind the attack. So far, more than 300 people have
been killed.  Before the fall of Saddam Hussein a year ago, young men in
this city were told they were the vanguard, the elite, top prospects for
top jobs because of their tribal connections and Sunni alliances. Now,
they are adrift, subject to the most aggressive American tactics and the
full brunt of occupation.  Like the angry youth of the West Bank and Gaza,
Iraqi children are increasingly surrounded by music, images, leaflets
and praise for fighters. "The men of Falluja are men for hard tasks,"
sings Sabah al-Jenabi, a popular Iraqi performer, in a song that made the
rounds even before the killing of the contractors. "They paralyzed America
with rocket-propelled grenades. The men of Islam will fight the Americans
like leaderless soldiers. We'll drag Bush's corpse through the dirt."
Abdul Razak al-Muaimy, a 32-year-old laborer, said: "I train my son to
kill Americans. That is one reason I am grateful to Saddam Hussein. All
Iraqis know how to use weapons."  Like so many other parents, Mr. Muaimy
said American soldiers had humiliated him in front of his children.
"They searched my house," he said. "They kicked my Koran. They speak
to me so poorly in front of my children. It's not that I encourage
my son to hate Americans. It's not that I make him want to join the
resistance. Americans do that for me."  Mr. Muaimy said his 10-year-old
son did not take part in the violence against the contractors. But,
because of all the miseries he knew Americans had brought, he would have.
"He said: `Dad, it was exactly like what they did to us. They burned our
women, they burned our children, they burned our men.' My son said this
time we killed and burned four of their dead but hopefully one day we will
kill and burn them all.  "Just imagine, he is only 10, and he says that."
Mr. Muaimy shook his head, more than a little sad.  "My son is just like a
piece of white paper, ready for anything to be written on it. He receives
everything. It stays in his memory."