Marines Get a Banquet, Reporter Gets the Boot

As the war continues, secular media outlets are focusing on the resistance of Iraqis to the coalition's campaign. However, other accounts are slowly coming out which challenge those reports.

The Washington Times has relayed the story of a recent encounter between a group of U.S. Marines and two busloads of Iraqi citizens fleeing the heavy fighting in central Iraq. When they stopped at a Marine camp, the women who got off the bus prepared a feast for the Marines who have been living off rations for days.

The banquet included slaughtered lambs and chickens, as well as boiled eggs and potatoes that the Iraqis had prepared for themselves in preparation to flee their towns. As one Marine quoted by The Times put it: "Man, I never thought a boiled egg could taste so good." Another described the offering of food by the Iraqis as "a lovely, beautiful gesture."

One of the passengers on the buses could speak some English. He said he spoke for other passengers who "like Americans," and that no one likes Saddam because "he was not kind."

A Marine officer says he was also moved by comments from some of the Iraqis who said they would pray for the Marines and expressed a hope to go to America after the war.

Correspondent Fired
Meanwhile, NBC has fired veteran correspondent Peter Arnett after he told Iraqi TV over the weekend that America's war efforts have failed to this point because of Iraqi resistance.

During Arnett's interview with Iraqi TV, broadcast on Sunday, he said his contacts in Iraq tell him there is a growing sense of nationalism and resistance to what the U.S. and Britain are doing. He stated his belief that "the first war plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance. Now [coalition forces] are trying to write another plan."

"Clearly, the American war plans misjudged the determination of the Iraqi forces," Arnett said.

The veteran newsman also noted that reports about the resistance of the Iraqi forces and about civilian casualties were being sent back to the U.S., saying such information challenges American policy and helps those who oppose the war to "develop their arguments."

After NBC defended Arnett's comments through the weekend, they have now fired him, despite his efforts to apologize in an interview Monday morning on the Today program. Arnett said he wanted to apologize to the American people for clearly making what he called "a misjudgment."

In its statement today, NBC says it was "wrong for Mr. Arnett to grant an interview to state-controlled Iraqi TV, especially at a time of war, and it was wrong for him to discuss his personal observations and opinions in that interview."

It is not the first time Arnett has stirred up controversy over what some have seen as a pro-Iraqi bias. Associated Press notes that during Arnett's coverage of the Gulf War for CNN in 1991, the Bush Administration of that day suggested Arnett had become a conveyor of propaganda.

In another recent interview, Arnett stated that the Iraqis were allowing him to stay in Baghdad because they respected him and saw him as a "fellow warrior."

New Petition: Transform Iraq into beacon There are good people in Iraq. They are organized and have influence and ability to help Iraq become a democratic republic that could show the Middle East a better way of governing factions and resolving conflicts.

One of them, for example, is Albert Yelda, an Assyrian Christian with influence over more than 1.5 million Iraqi Christians, including Assyrians and Chaldeans. Yelda, cofounder of the Iraqi National Congress, split off from the Moslem-dominated group in 1999 to form the Iraqi National Coalition. He has been part of the Iraqi opposition since 1973, while living in Iraq.

Unfortunately, such supporters of a new secular government, one that represents all religions and factions, are at great risk. To let their names be known would put them in grave peril. They must work anonymously until conditions improve. Just know that they are pledged to replace the evil tyranny with the freedom of democracy not only to help the Iraqi people but to show the way to the Moslem world. They are worthy of our support.

The Bush administration must understand the need for a government not controlled by any one religion, like elsewhere in the Middle East. To promote and groom only Shi'ite groups, such as the "supreme council of Islamic revolution in Iraq," Iraqi communists and "ex" Baath party members to key positions in the post-Saddam government is a mistake. Members of such groups are today in Washington D.C. Pro-democracy figures of the Iraqi opposition must not be ignored.

USATODAY.com - Ex-Iraq officers discuss ousting Saddam Albert Yelda, co-founder of the Iraqi National Coalition, said the meeting would be the largest gathering ever of exiled Iraqi officers. He said they hope to unify those in exile and still inside Iraq in "establishing a democratic regime where the Iraqis, Assyrians, Christians, Muslims, Arabs, Kurds and Turkomans can live peacefully and equally."

Professorial Pundits Place Iraq Bets No one reasonably expects professors of Middle Eastern studies to predict military outcomes. But political outcomes, especially in the long term, are supposed to be their forte. And so here, for the record, are the predictions of four chaired professors of Middle Eastern studies, at leading American universities. At the end of the day, events will prove two of them right, and two of them wrong.

Iraqi immigrants gung ho on war They danced in the aisles when Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz showed up in Dearborn to address them last month.

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