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Posted on 04/10/2003 4:04:02 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
IT was a phenomenon of Arab brotherhood: from across the Middle East and even farther afield, hundreds of young men made their way to Iraq to fight the US and British "invaders".
But with the fall of Baghdad and the disappearance of the Iraqi leadership, some volunteers are returning home, disillusioned and angry at the failure of their Jihad, or holy war.
"We volunteered to defend Baghdad," said Firas Ali Abdullah, who returned to Syria with seven other Syrians and Lebanese yesterday.
"Instead of giving us weapons to fight, they used us as human shields."
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Arabs travelled to Iraq before and since the start of the war, taking up the banner of Jihad as a means to vent their heated opposition to the US-led offensive.
Young and old men gathering at bus stations in Damascus, Syria, or taxi stands in Amman, Jordan, vowed to fight however they could, even with suicide attacks.
But the volunteers expected to join a solid army with firm leadership. With the dissolution of Iraq's government structure, the scattering of the army and the surprising invisibility of even the esteemed Republican Guard, many are discouraged and disillusioned.
"We were hit by Iraqis from the back and the American troops from the front," Abdullah said, explaining why he left Iraq.
Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera reported that even the Iraqis were trying to talk the Arabs into giving up the fight. One rumour suggested that, as Abdullah said, the Iraqis were using violence to convince them.
The network reported that Arab volunteers had withdrawn from Mosul, northern Iraq, following the departure of their leaders.
"Yesterday we woke up in the camp to see that all the Iraqi soldiers and officers had fled," a Syrian volunteer who gave his name as Sayeed told al-Jazeera by phone after returning to Syria.
"We the Arab holy fighters were left alone in the streets."
Shortly before the war began on March 19-20, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan announced that thousands of Arab volunteers seeking martyrdom were arriving and more were expected. Iraq's state television later said an estimated 4,000 fighters had arrived.
Abdullah, the Syrian fighter, said he knew of 600 Arab volunteers, including 180 Syrians and 300 Lebanese and Jordanians. He said he was a member of the militant Lebanese group Hizbollah, which he said sent 200 suicide fighters, though the group has denied sending any volunteers.
Many volunteers remain in Iraq, making up some of the most determined holdouts in the fight against coalition troops. In Baghdad today, US Marines cleared out two mosques after determining that volunteer fighters from other Arab countries were inside, firing on US troops.
At a former Iraqi military compound, eight prisoners knelt in the dirt; US soldiers said they were suspected Islamic militants from France, Algeria, Egypt and Jordan.
Al-Jazeera reporter Tayssir Allouni said from Baghdad today that he saw Arab gunmen with headbands referring to martyrdom.
"They appeared to be non-Iraqi ... a reminder of some of the Palestinian resistance fighters on TV screens."
But the furore for Jihad seems to have faded.
In Cairo yesterday, Egyptian TV showed footage of men clamouring to get inside the lawyers' union offices, where they could sign up for Jihad. But today the office was empty and the man in charge of distributing applications said no volunteers had come since yesterday afternoon - when televisions were showing live pictures of Saddam's statue being toppled in Baghdad.
At a shabby coffee shop in downtown Cairo, waiter Ashraf Abu el-Alla seemed resigned to the futility of the volunteers' fight.
"There is no use now. Look at the Iraqi president, he let his people down. Why should Arabs remain there?" he asked.
In a coffin.
Naturally they are disillusioned. They are dead.
And your complaint is???
It is probably one of those words which have more than one meaning, like "sucker" or "liberal."
What in the world did these people expect, how naive are they.
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