Monday, July 07, 2003

From the Eurasia-Geopolitics Yahoo Group: Al-Alam TV has aired a report from Fallujah on the "Awakening and Jihad" group, which has vowed to resist the American occupation in that country. One interesting excerpt from the group's spokesperson: "I tell the Muslims everywhere that what is happening in Fallujah and other cities, in spite of the media cover-up by the invading forces, are sporadic operations. In doing so, we do not wish to declare war on them, but to make America understand that we are people who do not accept occupation, particularly after it made big false promises to the Iraqi people to rid it of the dictator Saddam." I find it curious that the American pledge to oust Saddam is called a "false promise." The spokesperson goes on to tout various anti-Semitic beliefs found on the streets of Baghdad today which I will not repeat here. There is of course no way of knowing how big this group is, as they didn't take credit for anything specific. I suspect we'll see lots of small groups of various sizes and ideologies spring up as the occupation continues. Unfortunately, this means the attacks on U.S. troops probably won't end because of major military operations, as you have to basically round up every group individually and hope that no more start while you're doing it. Winning local support is thus a vital part of stabilizing Iraq.

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