Sympathy for al-Zarqawi grows among Iraqis amid U.S. airstrikes

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Credit where credit is due...the link was posted on Digby's Blog, "Hullabaloo (http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/)."

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9842981.htm

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Once reviled as the man who brought beheadings to Iraq, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is gaining support among Iraqis who are outraged over the trail of razed neighborhoods and dead civilians left by the U.S. military's anti-insurgent offensives this month.

These days, the ominous flag also pops up in a Baghdad neighborhood known for daily shootouts between Islamic militants and American forces. When insurgents burned a U.S. armored vehicle there recently, locals stuffed the black banner in the vehicle's smoldering gun barrel. In an anti-American demonstration not long ago in the northwest city of Samarra, which is now the object of a joint U.S.-Iraqi military offensive, demonstrators carried the al-Zarqawi group's flag in broad daylight through public streets for the first time.

Many Iraqis explained the fledgling support for al-Zarqawi by citing a popular Arabic proverb: "Me and my brother against my cousin; me and my cousin against a stranger."

"The banners are a reaction to what the Americans did and what they are still doing in Fallujah and Samarra, with bombings and killings," said Sheik Hassan al Niemi of the Muslim Scholars Association, a conservative Sunni Muslim group that opposes the American presence in Iraq. "Why not have foreign fighters here? When the Americans came, they didn't come alone. They brought their allies. Why is it a crime against us if other Arabs stand with Iraqis? They're our brothers."

[candy331]

1. The crux of the matter is stated here, too bad US don't get it

Why not have foreign fighters here? When the Americans came, they didn't come alone. They brought their allies. Why is it a crime against us if other Arabs stand with Iraqis? They're our brothers."

SHALL I ADD THAT "BLOOD IS STILL THICKER THAN WATER"?