| Robert Fisk suggested some time ago the possibility that talk of civil war in Iraq between Sunni and Shiite was being stoked up by the US government. The reason being to so frighten the Iraqis with the spectre of a civil war blood bath that the Iraqis would be more accepting of anything the US administration was offering them (typical divide and rule).
Wether or not this is true, we now have the surprising sight of thousands of Sunni and Shiite coming together in a common cause - their hatred of the coalition forces and the occupation of their country. Less surprising is the huge sympathy from the people of Baghdad with the people of Fallujah, sending blood and supplies through the US blockade to the city.
No matter how much we wish to demonise the insurgents, the Sunnis now fighting in Baghdad and South of Baghdad are the very people that rose up against Saddam and were so crushingly defeated by him. Are we - as belis pointed out in another post - begining to do exactly what Saddam did in 1991?
However this is going wrong, how long can we continue to call it liberation? One things for sure though, whoever the US troops fight, they are never going to be called ordinary Iraqis, even if that is all they are. | |
