Nationalism drives many insurgents as they fight U.S. 'Terrorists,' only o

[RamboLiberal]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/10/26/MNG659G46T1.DTL

Bush administration officials have drawn a consistent picture of the insurgents they have been fighting in the past 17 months of occupation: religious extremists, "dead-enders" associated with Saddam Hussein and foreign terrorists slipping across the country's porous borders.

But a wide range of interviews with Iraqis and U.S. officials here paints a starkly different portrait -- a growing, intensely nationalist resistance determined to remove U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies.

"Rather than vilifying those who don't like us and rather than simplistic rhetoric, shouldn't we be trying to understand what's going on, what many Iraqis are thinking and try to address their concerns?" said an American adviser in Baghdad, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Of course there are some terrible elements -- there are, clearly, some al Qaeda adherents and some who use terrorist methods as well as some garden- variety criminal elements -- but I just don't think it's good to categorize them all as 'terrorists.' "

[knowbody0]

1. im thinkin they will soon call democrats terrorists

[bvar22]

2. Saying what we've been saying for a year:

That bush* is now murdering the VERY SAME PEOPLE that he said we went to Iraq to liberate!

[are_we_united_yet]

3. I've got one question?

Where have all the flowers gone?

[Robert Oak]

4. anybody have a breakdown

on what industries, public works, etc. are really there for the Iraqis?

Seems to me US contractors got pretty much the entire bounty, but not seen very much on the real breakdown.

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. These contractors projects have pretty much ground to a halt

It isn't safe to be anyplace but in a fortified bunker surrounded by goon military guards.