'The Zionists did it'

Jerusalem Post ^ | Apr. 3, 2004 | MATTHEW GUTMAN

[yonif]

Gliding his straight razor over a client's face, Ahmed Kadduri, of the Kadduri barber shop in the largely Sunni neighborhood of Adamiyeh, lifted his eyes long enough to spit out, "It was the Zionists and the foreign organizations that did it."

He was, of course, referring to Wednesday's murder of four and the mutilation of two American contractors in Fallujah.

The lynchings, referred to by many here as the "accident," remain a much-debated topic, slicing down the center of Iraq's political and ethnic divide and pitting Sunni against Shi'ite.

Despite the mutilations' denunciation of by some Fallujah clerics, over the weekend some Iraqis displayed a perplexing combination of denial and support for the attacks.

Suddenly a short man with a shiny bald pate popped up from his seat in front of Kadduri. "The Americans were mutilated because of the women detained at Abu Ghraib [a massive coalition prison complex near Fallujah that served as Saddam's depository of political dissidents and criminals].

They are kept naked and they are raped. It was revenge for our women."

Meet Col. Abdel Hadi Muhammad Ali (of the disbanded Iraqi army), said the barber, introducing the diminutive colonel.

Ali continued his harangue that "Iraqis are gracious hosts, but when you humiliate us we fight like lions." Soon the Fallujans will be called "the Lions of Fallujah" for their resistance, he said.

The others nodded. Ali said he had taken four bullets fighting the coalition's invasion last March. He proudly rolled up his sleeve to reveal two quarter-size scars, one on his forearm, the other on his biceps.

Coalition officials staunchly deny the claim of inhumane conditions in Abu Ghraib. The proliferation of rumors, it is said in coalition circles, has gotten the best of many Iraqis.

Kadduri's clients gabbed about the incident not so much stunned by the lynching's horrors but apprehensive of the American response. US administrator L. Paul Bremmer has said that those who killed the four Americans "will not go unpunished."

That a few said they saw nothing wrong with the attack highlighted the stark cleavage in culture between occupier and occupied.

Soon after the war, Ali observed that a soldier from a convoy of American armored personnel carriers "smiled and waved at a group of little girls. Had one of them been my daughter, I would have jumped on the tank and killed him."

American women might be treated "like animals or pieces of flesh, but we don't want Iraqi women to be like that."

Just above his head, a TV blared racy music videos on the Lebanese-based Zen satellite station. The hundreds of thousands of satellite dishes and receivers Iraqis have purchased since the war are jerry-rigged on rooftops, balconies, and tiny patches of grass all over this city.

Kadduri's young assistant blushed and turned from the television back to his seated client.

Dr. Gilan Mahmood Ramiz, a Princeton-trained Iraqi political scientist banished by Saddam in the early 1990s, observed that the people of Fallujah are "provincial and primitive. They are at base still a tribal society."

During an interview in his Baghdad home, he also blamed the lynching on the coalition's failure to establish a unifying provisional government. Had it encouraged political activity among the intelligentsia and professional class, "city politics would have eliminated the tribal village politics of towns like Fallujah."

With Saddam gone and a "quisling" provisional government in his place, some Iraqis have reverted to the only mode available: arcane tribal politics guided by the principles of honor, shame, and ultimately revenge.

And on Friday, Fallujah's leaders almost admitted as much. "Fallujah is based on a tribal model which demands revenge. This led to the uncontrolled and severe reaction of the people," Muhammad al-Handani was quoted as saying by the daily Azzaman.

But support for the insurgency also depends somewhat on one's religious background. Sunnis tend to support the terrorist attacks, because with Saddam gone they feel "disenfranchised," said Ramiz. The Shi'ites, who tentatively support US efforts in Iraq and have born the brunt of the insurgency, have decried the lynchings as barbaric.

"These people give all Iraqis a bad name," said Faisal Abu Khalil, a Shi'ite physicist at al-Mustanseriyeh University of Baghdad and an occasional client of Kadduri's. The mutilation, he said, had shocked his family: "It is inhumane and simply un-Muslim."

"I wonder what the point of it all is," he asked. "Do they really feel they can defeat the Americans, to banish them, by desecrating their bodies?"

Well, some do. "In all I believe the attack on the Americans was OK," concluded Ali. "If America continues to lie to the Iraqi people, I assure you I will be first in line to join the resistance to oust the Americans."

[SENTINEL]

"Iraqis are gracious hosts"

This is the root of the Iraqi problem. They are not our hosts, they are the conquered.

[Support Free Republic]

---

	Donate Here By Secure Server Or mail checks to FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794 or you can use PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com
STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER THREAD- It is in the breaking news sidebar!

[saquin]

Soon after the war, Ali observed that a soldier from a convoy of American armored personnel carriers "smiled and waved at a group of little girls. Had one of them been my daughter, I would have jumped on the tank and killed him."

What a freakin' sicko! I swear, with all the talk the Muslims do about the so-called depraved, sex-obsessed West, they are the ones obsessed with sex. What kind of sicko would see anything wrong with a soldier smiling and waving at little girls? And would be so incensed by it that he'd want to kill the person who smiled and waved? What I want to know is, what is Ali doing to little girls? Anyone obsessed with such thoughts raises my suspicions.

[Brytani]

Remember, Mohammed married a 9 year old. To them, it's normal to be sexual to a girl that age.

Doesn't excuse the sickness of their beliefs but explain a lot. For us seeing a man wave at a child is innocent, to them it must be some form of flirting.

In my opinion, we are helping people that world would be better off without - now I must go turn in my PC card for that statement.

[bereanway]

How do you deal with a people group who after having witnessed Fallujah claim "it was the Zionists and foreign organizations"? Reality means nothing to these people.

[yonif]

Ping.

[finnman69]

Ali is probably a conflicted closet homo.

[KarlInOhio]

"It was the Zionists and the foreign organizations that did it." He was, of course, referring to Wednesday's murder of four and the mutilation of two American contractors in Fallujah.

This is the desperate statement caused by realizing that President Bush will not react like president pantsless. He knows the Americans will not be chased out by this and our revenge will be both brutal and just.

[alloysteel]

This whole summary of points of view adopted by (some) Iraqis has to rank right up there in the annuls of lunacy.

To say that the act of attacking, murdering and mutilating American civilians was attributable to "Zionists" simply does not connect to reality. How many fanatical Jews are in Iraq, anyway? They would hve been attacked by this mob even more furiously than the Americans were.

The attackers were indigenous Iraqi Ba'athists and Sunni zealots, no question. Fallujah seems to be one of the more backward regions of all Iraq. And as long as they believe they may strike with impunity, they have no incentive to improve their behavior.

They may believe that Somalia was the defining event of how Americans would respond. But since then, 9/11 happened. Americans just had a flashback.

[Cato the Censor]

You crucify 2000 of the scumbags from Fallujah-1000 along the road in and 1000 on the road out of that dungheap.This is how the Romans dealt with such barbarism and the message was delivered.When will our government and the media realize that Islam is the real enemy and we cannot co-exist with it?

[Killborn]

"Soon after the war, Ali observed that a soldier from a convoy of American armored personnel carriers "smiled and waved at a group of little girls. Had one of them been my daughter, I would have jumped on the tank and killed him."

Yeah Ali. I'd love to see you try.

[68skylark]

In my opinion, we are helping people that world would be better off without - now I must go turn in my PC card for that statement.

I know the news from Iraq has been very distressing recently. It's made me very angry. If I can make a short addition to your comment I'd just say: (1) It's okay to help people who don't "deserve" help. In a sense, very few of us really "deserve" the help and blessings we receive in life. (2) We're helping ourselves as much or more -- making sure that Iraq can never develop WMD's or do anything else to help terrorists who want to hit us and our allies. Even if they hate us in Iraq, we still need to be there, or else the worst psychos there will be coming to a town near you.

[68skylark]

Yeah Ali. I'd love to see you try.

Good comment. These people seem to be pretty good at playing the part of stupid, medieval, psycho losers. But when the time comes, are they really willing to act like stupid, medieval, psycho losers? Mostly they're not -- they're just acting.

[Zeppo]

"Fallujah is based on a tribal model which demands revenge. This led to the uncontrolled and severe reaction of the people," Muhammad al-Handani was quoted as saying by the daily Azzaman.

Then I'd guess that those tribal savages should have no problem with Uncle Sam opening up a can of whoop-ass on them...

[Killborn]

"I'm still waiting to see the "overwhelming force" that the U.S. Marines will use to respond to this savage barbarism. "

Three paradigms for the Coalition to work with:

1) British house to house operations in Basra during Op Iraqi Freedom.

2) Operation Iron Hammer on one of the cities after the War. Looks like it consists of precision bombings and Humvee/Armored raids.

3) The IDF treatment. Checkpoints galore.

"I want to know why we are 'rebuilding' the 'Iraqi People' who hate our guts and who don't deserve any help from us at all? Since when is it our job to rebuild countries that we are at war with, countries where our own people get dragged through the streets by savages? And yes that includes the screaming children and ugly women."

1) Not everyone hates our guts. That's what the media wants you to believe. They find malcontents and Saddamites and portray them as the Iraqi people. Notice that in Bosnia and Kosovo, you don't hear anything about the KLA Al-Qaeda connection and all the Muslims there love the US intervention. If a Democrat was President, they'd be interviewing all the Pro-US people and say Fallujah is an aberration. Don't forget all the wailing and gnashing from the leftists when the Iraqis turned out to welcome us in droves when the troops hit Baghdad. The ones that are in Fallujah are not the ones celebrating the fall of Saddam.

2) Since WWII we rebuild nations. When you invade another nation and leave without so much as a helping hand, you create resentment or chaos. We all know what happened to Afghanistan after everyone left in 1988. Leaving Iraq now would either create another Afghanistan or another terrorist/anti-American tyrant will take over. Then US will have to go back and fight them again.

3) Annihilating the Iraqis is out of the question. It is immoral, unethical, evil, and validate all the BS the Left has been spouting since forever. From a strictly strategic viewpoint, we will be creating more enemies. Any survivors and witnesses will be firmly united as enemies of the US.

4) If Iraq is stabilized and become a democratic country, the US would gain another ally. Iraqis for generations would be grateful for our help and would likely do our bidding. How much influence will socialists and terrorists have over the people? When they tell a lie about the US, the people would just ignore them. They will probably be our allies in the war on terror due to their experience in terror first hand and as an act of gratitude towards America.

"I have a website, www.geocities.com/cobrakaikarate. Since I am new to this forum I thought I would let you know about it. This issue and others are there, plus all of my political cartoons."

I too am relatively new to this ste, so let me say "Welcome aboard!" Here's to a long and successful career in FReeping! Thanks for the site. I'll check it out immediately.

[Killborn]

Hmm. All talk and no walk.

We can only hope that's the case. If the majority of these losers only yap and bark, that means there is a lot less people who would kill our troops and innocent civillians.

[yonif]

militant Islam is what we need to target. However, political correctness prevents action against that. That is one of the reasons Imans calling for the deaths of Americans at rallies in Iraq have not been arrested.

[Brytani]

The worst psycho's have already been in my town, literally. Mohammed Attah tried to garner a loan to purchase a plane from a bank located 4 miles from my house. My husband also works at a nuclear power plant, so my worries hit close to home.

With that said, you can not change the heart and minds of those who hate us. Who preach hatered towards us and those who carry out terrorist attacks against us. If we sit back and allow those types of people to attacks our troops and people at will, we encourage further attacks.

A strong sign to those in Iraq that America will NOT put up with terrorist is what is needed. Hard to plan attacks from the grave.