Iraqis view U.S. troops as occupiers
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BY DREW BROWN
Knight Ridder Foreign Service
Posted on Sun, Aug. 10, 2003
twincities.com
<<...Many Iraqis increasingly view American troops as foreign occupiers. And as attacks against U.S. troops continue, the low-level guerrilla war that American military officials say is being waged by former regime loyalists, foreign terrorists and criminals threatens to escalate into a wider nationalist struggle.
"The killing or capture of Saddam Hussein will do nothing," said Mungith Daghir, the vice president of the Iraq Center for Research and Strategic Studies, an analysis group that Baghdad University professors founded after Saddam was ousted from power.
Omar Abid al Mugeeth doesn't care whether Saddam is still alive or gone for good. Since U.S. troops liberated the Iraqi capital in April and forced the former dictator into hiding, the 31-year-old moneychanger has been robbed at gunpoint twice, losing thousands of dollars on both occasions.
"When the Americans first came, trust in them was 100 percent," Mugeeth said, as he sat with his friends in his cramped, sweltering shop in downtown Baghdad. "But now there is none. There is no security. There is no electricity. There is no water. At least we had these things under Saddam. Before, I hated Saddam. But right now, he is better than the Americans. I swear if I get hurt by the Americans again, I will take up a gun against them myself."
Daghir said a poll by his research center found that 32 percent of 1,000 Iraqis surveyed believe that former regime loyalists are behind the attacks, but a sizable 22 percent blame the attacks on American "provocations," including nighttime raids on people's homes, U.S. soldiers searching women and violating other Muslim taboos and the killing of innocent civilians in the ongoing military operations.
"We think the American forces … want to believe … that Saddam Hussein is responsible for everything," Daghir said. "But they don't want to admit that they are responsible for some things because of their hasty decisions or the bad advice they've been given."
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, estimated the strength of the guerrilla resistance at 5,000 fighters.
"We're fighting a low-intensity conflict that is multifaceted," he said, listing disparate groups including "criminals," Saddam loyalists and "radicals" who oppose the American presence.
Sanchez said the use of timed, rocket-propelled grenades, trip wires and packed explosives bore the marks of al-Qaida. He added that Iraq is a magnet for foreign terrorists. U.S. intelligence officials say Syrians, Saudi Arabians, Algerians and even a few Albanians have turned up to battle American troops in Iraq...>> |
