Sunday, May 30, 2004

How can the Iraqi Resistance win?

By winning, I mean driving the US out and not collapsing into chaos.

I thought for months there are three prerequisites, neither of which I saw as likely, yet one is already met and there is the first sign of aother getting met.

The first is to prevent a religious war. Essentially, a Suni-Shi'a peace. This seems to have been met.

The second is to boot out foreign meddlers from Islamic countries, too. That is, al-Qaida, Zharkawi's al-Tawhid, anything from Iran etc.

The third would be to persuase the majority of the Kurds that they can be lived with. This is especially iportant if we consider the US's options and likely moves if it is booted out: I think any possible US leadership would aim at weakening an independent Iraq, and do that by supporting whatever armed resistance to the new powers-that-be can be found in the country.

Now I read in a source I generally don't trust, London's Telegraph, that Iraqi insurgents turn against 'out of control' Saudi al-Qaeda fighters
, at least in Fallujah:

A well-armed group infiltrated the city before fighting erupted in March and is continuing to mount operations against the coalition and Westerners in the area, in defiance of leaders of Fallujah's mosques, the army and the police force...

...A senior sheikh in Fallujah said the group was "out of control", adding: "We are worried that they are part of al-Qaeda. That means that we will have to force them out and it will be hard. But this is our country we are fighting for, and it is our fight with the Americans. They have their own country and their own ideas which we do not share."

Fallujah's own independent militia, set up under the agreement with the Americans that ended a month-long battle for the city, is threatening to attack the Saudi group because of its persistent involvement in kidnappings and looting.


As a byline, another interesting tidbit about the re-use of US weapons:

Although some of their arsenal was smuggled into the country, the most effective anti-tank weaponry was American: rockets and missiles which, the fighters claim, was either salvaged from downed helicopters and vehicles or obtained from traders.

Missiles have been converted into weapons that are effective against tanks but produce a hot back-blast that burns the hands and faces of the fighters.

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