Opinion, July 2003, www.aljazeerah.info
Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people
Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
Cities, localities, and tourist attractions
America's daily reminder to depart
Gulf News
28-07-2003
The ability of the U.S. to win the "hearts and minds" of Iraqis diminishes with each passing day. Yet the ability of token guerrilla forces to kill American troops, seemingly at will and at random, increases daily. If the American-led administration in Iraq, or even the Bush administration in the White House had thought that with the capture or killing of key members of the Baath regime the battle would be won, they are being shown how mistaken that premise is.
The blame for much of the unrest has been placed on the ineffectiveness of the coalition forces to quickly restore normality to the people. That the task is greater than had been envisaged by either the U.S. or the UK merely reflects again the poor intelligence that the governments were receiving. Any intelligence service should have known that after a decade of UN sanctions, following on from two decades of suppression, Iraqis would be in dire need of almost everything. All that has been demonstrated thus far by the Americans is their unpreparedness.
It is because of this discontent that Iraqis have such mixed feelings towards the continued occupation of their lands. The fault lies not just with the fact of the occupation by American-led troops, but also in the crass way in which the U.S. soldiers perform their duties.
The Americans have obviously not been instructed on how to behave as an occupation force, despite there being specific guidelines laid down by the Geneva convention. Worse, it is apparent that the troops have no idea about Arab sensitivities or Islamic customs and frequently contravene traditions and beliefs. To an Arab, to a Muslim, these are areas that cannot be left unchallenged.
If America wishes to continue in Iraq - something most Iraqis would prefer was not so - then it has a sharp learning curve to get round. Less is likely to continue the deaths of good soldiers trying to do the bidding of their government.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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