Spinning Tikrit

[Barrett808]

With Saddam Hussein releasing tapes, anti-American graffiti flourishing on city walls, and attacks on coalition troops becoming ever-more deadly, the occupation of Iraq appears to be going badly for Washington. But as President George Bush turns to the United Nations for help out of the morass, his public relation forces on the ground are unswerving; the liberation of Iraq is a success.

Radio Netherlands reporter Hans-Jaap Melissen spoke to Joslin Abberly, spokeswoman for the US fourth infantry division, in Tikrit. In this interview she points out why things are getting better:

"Perhaps out of all the areas in Iraq, Tikrit was the least friendly to coalition forces when we first arrived. Since then, what we've noticed is that although Saddam was from Tikrit, there were actually very few people who benefited from his being here. Outside of that very small population group that had power, that had money, Tikrit is a very poor area, and what we've found is that the population of Tikrit, while not outright in showing that they are happy that Americans are here, we see it in other ways. Such as informants coming forward with information."

RN: "But there are more attacks against the Americans in general in this area, and recently many Americans died again."

RN´s Hans-Jaap Melissen interviews Joslin Abberly 3´03

"We did have a surge in attacks in the last few weeks, but actually attacks in this area have declined almost 50 percent from when we first arrived. The attacks against coalition forces are now becoming more lethal, I believe, but the number of attacks has gone down significantly."

RN: "But that doesn't make the situation better, does it, when it's more lethal?"

"When we first came here the price on the streets to attack coalition forces was anywhere from 100 to 300 dollars. Now that price tag is up around 5000 dollars, so they have to pay that much more to have an average Iraqi try to attack Americans."

(more)

http://www.rnw.nl/hotspots/html/ira030923.html