Tony Shadid is hands down, the best U.S. reporter in Iraq right now, maybe the best period -- Robert Fisk without the bleeding heart. His latest piece is required reading:
Iraq's Once-Privileged Sunnis Increasingly See U.S. as Enemy
It's a report from the heart of Sunniland -- the part of Iraq that is quickly turning into the Middle Eastern version of the Mekong Delta. Shadid captures the rapid evolution of Sunni popular opinion away from secular nationalism or pan-Arabism and towards religious fundamentalism:
Instead of Arab nationalism, a new religious fervor is evident (in Ramadi, a town 60 miles west of Baghdad.) At the Great Sheikh Abdel-Malik Mosque, worshipers filled the hall, spilling out the door in rows three deep. Along its walls were leaflets offering religious courses twice a week. "We should fight the invaders and the occupiers," declared the prayer leader, Sheik Anis Abdel-Halim.
After the prayers, Hamad Qadduri stood in his auto parts store, a dusty hovel off a muddy street. Dressed in a white dishdasha, buttoned to the collar, he railed against the Baath Party for surrendering to the Americans, at Hussein for deserting Baghdad. With principles and morals, grounded in faith, he said he believed Iraqis could have rid the country of Hussein.
But the 51-year-old retired teacher gave the Americans no chance. They were kaffirs, he said, unbelievers.
"We can't like kaffirs, whatever services they provide us, whatever they do for us," he said. "This is our law."
Even now, there are hawks who firmly believe we invaded Iraq to fight the "Islamofascists." Some of us tried to tell them they were wrong -- that the Baath were secular nationalists, and that America risked repeating Israel's mistake in the early '80s of building up Hamas as a religious counterweight to the secular nationalists in the PLO:
I’m afraid the Bush Administration is about to make a similiar mistake – but on a vastly larger scale. By knocking Arab nationalist thugs like Saddam out of the box, aren’t we just taking out the competition for Al Quada?
We may soon learn the answer to that question. The hawks wanted to go to Iraq to fight "Islamofascism." They may get their wish.
"My friends, this election is about much more than who gets what. It is about who we are. It is about what we believe. It is about what we stand for as Americans. There is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America. "
Pat Buchanan, Republican Convention 1992
What a slacker. Limiting the religious war to America was lazy and short sighted.
"So why is Bush doing OBL's bidding?"
Because both have the same core group. Mindless religous fanatics. They have OBL, we have Pat Robertson. Grahm, Falwell, etc.
"So why is Bush doing OBL's bidding?"
Because both have the same core group. Mindless religous fanatics. They have OBL, we have Pat Robertson. Grahm, Falwell, etc.
Posted by Rodger at June 1, 2003 12:46 PM
Or how about a less obvious (and possibly less comfortable) explanation: Bush is "doing OBL's bidding" inadvertently because at the heart of things, both his worldview and that of OBL are profoundly distrustful and downright antagonistic to organic democracy and genuine grassroots participation. As each of them pursues their goals, in practice their efforts work to eliminate the actual possibilities for people to be actively, effectively and autonomously engaged in their own political, economic and social futures. Because Bush and the US can never have the complete hegemonic control that their worldview actually requires in order to be effective policy, it is the lack of true democratic possibilities (not his religious fanatacism -- remember Rummy and Cheyney are not Christian fundamentalists by any stretch of the imagination, they are just imperialistic hegemons)-- that ultimately serves the long-term interests of Bin Laden and his ilk.
Not quite such a neat and tidy soundbite as "they are both religious fanatics" but an explanation that captures a whole lot more of the tragic dynamics of all this mess.
I dunno. Just a thought. Help me out here, please.
It's interesting that--given all the ranting about Islamic terrorism--Americans often forget our own home-grown terrorism, which is primarily conservative christian. Note the just-captured Eric Robert Rudolph.
How is it that the customers here at the whiskey bar whine and snivel that GWB can't find OBL or Saddam, yet don't say a word about Clinton's inability to find our own "homegrown terriost" Eric Rudolph. And he was only 250 miles from Washington D.C. for years! Kinda makes one wonder what head he was thinking with.
Kinda makes one wonder what head he was thinking with.
In your case, commander, we definitely know which "head" you're "thinking" with.
Hey, Billmon. This certainly would be interesting since it would be the second major goal for Osama bin Laden that Bush delivered on, the first being getting the troops out of Saudi Arabia.
From driving U.S. troops out of Saudi Arabia to replacing authoritarian Arab governments with fundamentalist Islamic systems, bin Laden's ambition has swelled and shifted over time. And as his aspirations have grown, it has become more difficult for policymakers to imagine any plausible changes in U.S. policy that could cause him to call off the "jihad," or holy war, he declared against America in 1996.
So why is Bush doing OBL's bidding?