Report From Baghdad--Opening the Gates of Hell

[RainDog]

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0407-03.htm

Published on Wednesday, April 7, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
Report from Baghdad -- Opening the Gates of Hell
by Rahul Mahajan
 
Before the Iraq war, at a meeting of the Arab League, Secretary General Amr Moussa famously said that a U.S. war on Iraq would "open the gates of hell." In Iraq, those gates are yawning wider than they ever have before -- at least for the United States.

"Sunni and Shi'a are now one hand, together against the Americans," a man on the street in the mostly Shi'a slum of Shuala on the west side of Baghdad told me, as we conversed in the shadow of a burnt-out American tank transporter. Those sentiments were echoed at the local headquarters of Moqtada al-Sadr's organization, which had one day previously come under assault from U.S. forces.

And, indeed, everyone in the area agreed that when those forces were driven from Shuala, it was done by Sunni and Shi'a fighting together -- and by unorganized local inhabitants, not al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.

Whether or not the resistance here grows to a scale that the United States cannot control -- and this is more in the hands of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani than of Paul Bremer or George Bush -- it is already clear that the events of the last ten days mark a critical turning point in the occupation of Iraq.

...much more, and well worth the read...the guy is blogging from Baghdad.

[Christ was Socialist]

1. Well Bush Always said

I'm a uniter not a divider. Well Mr.Bush I give you credit for that at least.

[RainDog]

2. And you won't hear a thing about this

and other views on American tv. Instead, we have the army and the CPA republican operative on CNN all day today doing nothing but propping up the bush league's lies.

[Career Prole]

3. Propagandroids. n/t