Colpy said:
Oh Spare Me!
The insurgency exists for a couple of reasons, religious fanaticism is only one. It is the one which attracts hopeful martyrs from all over. May they get their wish.
The most important reason for the insurgency is the American suppression of the Sunni minority which ruled for so long. American style democracy puts the majority Shia in power. The Sunnis consider the Shia inferior. One Mideast expert compared the Sunni insurection to the creation of the KKK after the Civil War.
Hardly "Iraqis fighting for their own country's freedom"
Yes ... it seems a lot of people would prefer to be spared the truth; mincing words is their preferred tactic. You started off so well, there, Colpy (lame attempts at mocking disdain, aside :wink
; yes, the insurgency exists for a number of reasons (though more than a couple), one of which may well be religious fanaticism, and one important one is, indeed, the suppression of the Sunnis. Then you had to go and spoil it all with talk of resistance to "American style democracy"', and that silly comparison of the insurgents and the KKK.
I know you say that particular notion was originally generated by some sort of expert in Middle East affairs, but it sounds to me more like something that might be spouted by some neocon chickenhawk hack, who'd probably have been all for the KKK had he/she been around in the 1860s. It's silly, really - you can compare anything with anything, if your desperate enough to find similarities. Going by the criteria used in the KKK comparison, aren't the much-cited comparisons between Bush and Hitler equally valid? Or the Iraqi insurgents and the French Resistance of WWII (they were resisting occupation by belligerent fascist state)? Or how about al-Zawqari and Lech Walesa (both of whom resist/ed occupying superpowers, bent on enforcing their own particular brand of 'democracy')? As I say; all pretty silly and a waste of time, really.
As for "American style democracy", the January 2005 election, in reality, produced a 'democracy' that is no more than a puppet for the US. Although most would like to see an end to the occupation, the fact is, that far from being in a position to demand withdrawal of foreign troops, the regime is in need of them merely to ensure its own survival. Attempting to define Iraq as some kind of sovereign country whilst it remains occupied by foreign forces simply defies common sense. Likewise, an election held under occupation cannot be considered a 'free' election.
In the long term (the very long term, the way things are going at the moment) we may yet see a ‘free’ Iraq, but most likely, it will be chained to the US by debt; it's assets and major industries have already been sold off, by Paul Bremer. Thus, those that will really be enjoying ‘free’ Iraq are the US and other western multinationals, with the new ruling elites in Iraq inflating their own bank accounts. I'd imagine those things are seen as valid reasons to resist by some.
Of course, the truth is the most important reason for the insurgency is the way in which Iraq has been terrorised by the US and it's allies; far more, of course than by the brutality of the insurgents. Car bombs etc are evil and criminal acts, but they pale in comparison to the almost casual use of daisy cutters, JDAMS, Cluster bombs, Cruise missiles, WP and torture (not to mention the strife already caused by sanctions). These are surely the most important cause of the insurgency, is it not? The truth is, There were no ‘terrorists’, no Musab al-Zarqawi, no car bombs, no kidnappings and no beheadings in Iraq prior to the war (yeah, yeah, Saddam was a brute). What the US is fighting now is its own creation; these things are the consequence of US action and not the cause.
Here's an interesting quote from Major General Joseph Taluto (head of US 42nd Infantry in Iraq): he could understand why some ordinary people would take up arms against the US military because "they're offended by our presence".
"If a good, honest person feels having all these Humvees driving on the road, having us moving people out of the way, having us patrol the streets, having car bombs going off, you can understand how they could [want to fight us]."
