Fallujans Pose Challenge to Iraq Gov't (whatta understatement)

[maddezmom]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - According to Iraq (news - web sites)'s government, people like Ismail Ibrahim should be glad Fallujah is all but rid of the insurgents accused of turning the city into a terrorist base and using its civilians as human shields.



But in a Baghdad school where Ibrahim and about 200 displaced Fallujans have been living since the latest fighting drove them out, the talk is of vendetta — not against the insurgents but against the Americans and the Iraqi government.


"I feel hatred. I hurt. This is my city and it has been destroyed," Ibrahim said, sitting on a thin mattress on the floor of a room he shares with his wife, seven children and another family.


"The people of Fallujah are people of revenge. If they don't get their revenge now, they will next year or even after 50 years. But they will get it."

more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041204/ap_on_re_mi_ea/the_fallujah_challenge&cid=540&ncid=1480

[NMDemDist2]

1. it's so true the Persians have lonnnnnnggggggg memories

very very long.....

[Igel]

3. ???

Not Persians. Sunni Arabs.

[NMDemDist2]

4. ooops Persians are the Iranians aren't they? n/t

[KingChicken]

2. They have every right to hate America for what we've done to them.

This has nothing to do with freedom or democracy, the bushies could care less about Iraqis, or anyone for that matter.

[maddezmom]

5. WP: A Sharp Shift From Killing to Kindness

A Sharp Shift From Killing to Kindness
U.S. Troops in Iraq Torn by Competing Needs to Battle Insurgents and Win Over Populace

By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 4, 2004; Page A14

BAGHDAD -- For Army Capt. Rex Blair, the contrast was jarring.

One minute a few weeks ago he was handing candy to a little girl in a southern Baghdad neighborhood. Then, suddenly, he received word over his military radio that a U.S. patrol had been ambushed along the Tigris River a couple of miles away. One soldier was dead, five were wounded.

Blair and his unit rushed to the scene, as did other nearby members of the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment. They overwhelmed the insurgents and easily won the battle. But Blair discovered that the U.S. soldier who had died was a close friend.

The next day, he was back trying to assist Iraqis by paving a road and installing a water pump.

Switching from kindness to killing and back, sometimes within minutes or hours, is a strange experience for many U.S. soldiers here. It results from fighting a tenacious insurgency while trying to win over a population and build a new nation. And it demands a mental flexibility that taxes Blair and his fellow soldiers.

more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33544-2004Dec3.html?nav=headlines