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'Bush is the enemy of Islam'
Reuters

Posted on 04/02/2004 4:49:10 AM PST by Ironfocus

'Bush is the enemy of Islam'

April 02 2004 at 11:57AM

By Fiona O'Brien

Baghdad - The people who burned and kicked the corpses of four American contractors in the Iraqi town of Falluja this week were not armed insurgents or foreign fighters.

Children joined in as jubilant crowds played with the charred bodies, dragging them like trophies through the streets of a town overwhelmed by hatred for the occupying forces.

Those who participated in the brutality may represent just a tiny minority of Iraqis, but across the country anti-American voices are getting louder and more insistent.

'It's the duty of all Muslims to fight them' "There's an increasing feeling of anti-Americanism definitely," said Paola Gasparoli of Occupation Watch, an independent organisation that monitors the occupation.

"It's like all their hopes were destroyed. Families who had some hope the Americans would help Iraq now have sons who were killed or arrested, houses destroyed. This hope has died."

The United States authorities in Iraq cite polls showing that a vast majority of Iraqis are happy to have them in the country.

But one survey of 2 500 Iraqis released in March found that while they were happy to be rid of Saddam Hussein, 41 percent said they were humiliated by the invasion, four in 10 had no confidence in occupation troops, and one in five believed attacks on foreign soldiers in Iraq were justified.

A number of factors fuel the growing resentment.

'This is the democracy that Bush was waiting for' A year since the invasion, there has been no let-up in violence, infrastructure is still poor, jobs scarce. There is often friction between civilians and occupying troops.

Raids across the country leave houses damaged and property broken. Iraqis complain that troops coming under attack are quick to fire in self defence, but fire randomly and without regard for civilians nearby.

In Tikrit last month, US soldiers killed a three-year-old boy when they fired on a car carrying four children and three women. The troops said the car jumped a checkpoint, the Iraqis said they never saw one.

Rights groups say that in the so-called battle for hearts and minds, the occupying forces are often their own worst enemy.

One tank rumbles through Baghdad with "Bloodlust" painted on its barrel. Another says "Kill them all".

Frustration at the breakdown of order since Saddam's fall on April 9, 2003, has been compounded by a perceived disregard for Iraqi lives.

"They come and destroy our houses, it's the duty of all Muslims to fight them," Ahmad Muhammad, a Falluja resident who watched the carnage on Wednesday said. "We're happy to see this. This is the democracy that Bush was waiting for."

Falluja and the region west of Baghdad have long been a hotspot for resistance, but the problem is wider. When two foreigners were shot dead in the northern city of Mosul on Sunday, Iraqis cheered as their bodies lay in the street.

Anyone linked to the US-authorities is a target. Iraqi policemen, foreigners, local politicians have been killed in Baquba, Kirkuk, Basra, Baghdad.

Rumours stoke the hatred and Americans are blamed for everything. When Iraqi insurgents fire rockets and mortars, locals shout "Death to America" and "Bush is the enemy of Islam", and often claim sightings of US aircraft.

"It was a plane, the Americans dropped a bomb from a plane," a small girl wounded in a rocket attack on a residential neighbourhood in Baghdad recently wailed from her hospital bed.

The US army has increasingly linked the insurgency to foreign terror networks, but Wednesday's killings showed their top enemy within Iraq is hatred of the occupiers.

"On the issue of hearts and minds, trust and confidence, that's something we need to work on every day with the people of Iraq," the deputy director of operations for the US army in Iraq, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, told reporters.

"It's an active battle. It's as important for us to win the moral battle, the trust and confidence as it is to provide a safe and secure environment for the people of Iraq."


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: fallujah; islamistheenemy; muslimmurderers; religionofpeace
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1 posted on 04/02/2004 4:49:10 AM PST by Ironfocus
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To: Ironfocus
Should have added BARF ALERT...
2 posted on 04/02/2004 4:54:59 AM PST by Ironfocus
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3 posted on 04/02/2004 4:55:03 AM PST by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)
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To: Ironfocus
Like the French, they will never forgive us for saving them.
4 posted on 04/02/2004 4:57:23 AM PST by rhombus
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To: Ironfocus
Thats for sure.
What a whiney article. "A year later the infrastructure is still poor..." No sh$t, Sherlock. I guess they forgot that for the first 6 months, they themselves sabotaged repairs.
Not to mention that it was crumbling because Sadazz was busy lining his pockets and those of the French with money sent to take care of his peeps.
Was this an editorial on Err America?
5 posted on 04/02/2004 5:02:44 AM PST by Adder (Can we bring back stoning now? Please?)
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To: Ironfocus
Bush, and the secular west, have not declared war on Islam. We have not targeted Mecca, Medina or mosques. Bush has invited Islamic clerics to offer prayers at events, in order to show that we bear no ill will toward Islamics around the world.

Contrast this approach with the constant call to war against the west by some of these Islamics. Witness also their unceasing terrorist attacks on anything related to the secular west.

And yet the media wants to portray them as innocent victims of our imperial rapacity.

6 posted on 04/02/2004 5:05:52 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (You can see it coming like a train on a track.)
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To: Ironfocus
Bush is the enemy of Islam

That's the greatest thing I've heard in a long time. No doubt GW is get'n the job done.

7 posted on 04/02/2004 5:05:55 AM PST by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it.)
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To: Adder
while they were happy to be rid of Saddam Hussein, 41 percent said they were humiliated by the invasion, four in 10 had no confidence in occupation troops, and one in five believed attacks on foreign soldiers in Iraq were justified.

So about six in 10 weren't humiliated by the invasion, six in 10 do have confidence in "occupation" troops and four out of five don't believe attacks on coalition troops? You might think so, but not in Reuters' view of things. Typical.

8 posted on 04/02/2004 5:06:02 AM PST by mountaineer
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To: Ironfocus
Ya know, I don't believe much of this story. It comes across as another in the long series of anti-Bush hit pieces.

Here are the problems I have with it:
1) the bulk of the damnage to the Iraqi infrastructure was done by Saddam before American troops arrived AND before the missiles and bombs were released. The missiles that were launched were precision guided devices that aimed at specific targets, NOT infrastructure elements such as power and water. The bombs were also precision devices dropped on specific targets. This issue doesn't wash.
2) most Iraqis are finding jobs or creating their own businesses. The ones having difficulty are, likely, former Iraqi Red Guard and Fedayeen Saddam members who only know death and violence. They have no other marketable skills.
3) no matter how frustrated anyone is, that is no reason to murder and mutilate the people who are trying to help you. The soldiers there are doing everything in their power to improve life for ordinary Iraqis and the civilians they murdered in Fallujah were guarding food convoys to make sure that they could get enough to eat.

We have repeatedly been told that the Iraqis are well educated, but stories such as this belie what we have been told. If they think life under Saddam was tough, they will really hate living under the oppressive domination of Americans who are fed up with their non-stop attacks, murder and destruction if we decide to clamp down on them. This stuff needs to stop and Bremer and the coalition forces need to stop the PC games and take off the gloves. We can control and eradicate the attacks against coalition forces, but it requires a non-PC response. If this continues, the Iraqis deserve to understand what losing a war is REALLY about.
9 posted on 04/02/2004 5:06:21 AM PST by DustyMoment (Repeal CFR NOW!!)
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To: Adder
Came from the bastion of objective journalism called Reuters. I don't know how it is in Iraq, but I suspect that some Iraqis are still to realise that building their country is their responsibility. Right now it seems that they believe it is a year of Christmas, and the USA is Santa.
10 posted on 04/02/2004 5:07:11 AM PST by Ironfocus
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To: Puppage
Bush is the enemy of Islam

Well, you just can't please everybody.
11 posted on 04/02/2004 5:09:40 AM PST by reagan_fanatic (So you're a feminist - isn't that cute!)
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To: Puppage
stoopid islamic animals, we should pack up and leave em with what they have ungrateful b_____
The capt.
12 posted on 04/02/2004 5:11:20 AM PST by Capt.YankeeMike (get outta my pocket, outta my car, and outta the schools)
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To: Ironfocus
Iraqis believe they're welfare recipients and they don't see why they should have contribute to making their own country run. I agree that the sooner we turn the responsibility for their own affairs over to them, the better off we both will be.
13 posted on 04/02/2004 5:13:21 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: Ironfocus
If Muslims want to make we Americans/Christians the enemy, well I say fight our enemy. If they want the Crusades to continue by attacking and killing Americans, then kill all of those who wish it so.
14 posted on 04/02/2004 5:24:33 AM PST by HELLRAISER II (Give us another tax break Mr. President)
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To: Ironfocus
What poor Fiona can't comprehend is that to these people anyone who doesn't capitulate is "the enemy of Islam".

Would it help to send her a couple of crates of ginkgo biloba? No? I guess you're right. It's going to take a lot more than a couple of crates, all right.

15 posted on 04/02/2004 5:25:11 AM PST by Savage Beast (Was it "Love Story" that was written about John Kerry? Or was it "Washington Square"?)
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To: Capt.YankeeMike
In June I hope this is exactly what we do, leave them to fend for theirselves. What a bunch of ungrateful Pr*cks!
16 posted on 04/02/2004 5:26:14 AM PST by HELLRAISER II (Give us another tax break Mr. President)
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To: Ironfocus
"Islam rises and falls on Muhammad. He is the doctrine’s sole prophet, its lone founder, its god’s singular conduit. Yet the picture the Islamic scriptures paint is not flattering."

http://www.prophetofdoom.net/
17 posted on 04/02/2004 5:31:06 AM PST by OK
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To: Ironfocus
'Bush is the enemy of Islam'

Interesting choice of title from reuters.

18 posted on 04/02/2004 5:32:29 AM PST by Schnucki
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To: Schnucki
All of your Jihadis are garglers of pig.
19 posted on 04/02/2004 5:46:34 AM PST by crusade declared
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To: Ironfocus
Islam is the enemy of the U.S.
20 posted on 04/02/2004 5:48:05 AM PST by madison10
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