Posted on 06/26/2003 4:30:18 PM PDT by blam
Marsh Arabs threaten to resist 'army of occupation'
By Patrick Cockburn in Majar al-Kabir
27 June 2003
On the edge of the Iraqi marshlands, guerrillas who fought Saddam Hussein for years say they fear that Britain and the United States now want to take away their weapons so they can occupy Iraq for many years.
Al Sayyid Kadum al-Hashimi, a leader in the town of Majar al-Kabir south of Amara where six British soldiers were killed on Tuesday, said yesterday: "It is the belief of people here, and it is believed by all other Iraqis, that the British want to disarm us so they can stay for a long time."
Guerrillas, who resisted the Iraqi army for almost two decades, hiding out in the great reed beds of the Iraqi marshes, which Saddam tried to dry up by cutting drainage canals, say they are also prepared to fight a permanent occupation by the US and Britain.
Abu Hatem Qarim Mahoud, famed in Iraq as a guerrilla leader and known as the "lord of the marshes", said yesterday in an interview with The Independent that he hoped an agreement could be reached with the Allies about weapons, after intrusive searches by British troops led to Tuesday's deadly four-hour gun battle.
But Abu Hatem warned that Iraqis must not be excluded from power and "any programme for reconstruction without an interim Iraqi government will fail".
If there is further fighting around Amara, now controlled by Abu Hatem, it will be embarrassing for Britain and the US since the Iraqi guerrillas, given their resistance record, cannot be portrayed as remnants of Saddam's regime. "Ours is the only city which liberated itself through its own efforts," said Ali al-Atiyah, one of Abu Hatem's aides.
Some of the guerrillas are more forthright than their leader about how they see the future. "We will put an end to this occupation with our weapons," said Maythem al-Mohammed Dawi, a lean-faced man with a sub-machine-gun who had been fighting in the marshes since 1998. "If we give up our arms how can we fight them?"
He described how Abu Hatem's men were always pursued by the Iraqi army. They hid in reed shelters, always short of drinkable water and ammunition. As Saddam drained the marshes, destroying a culture that had existed for thousands of years, the guerrillas dug bunkers in the sides of dried up water courses.
Abu Hatem, a tall, impassive-looking 45-year-old dressed in a brown-camel hair cloak and a white headdress, is modest about his own power. Asked if he had an army of 8,000 men he pointed to the table in front of him and said: "I just have this book and this pen."
After serving in the Iraqi army as a non-commissioned officer he was jailed in 1980 for seven years and on his release started his guerrilla organisation called Hizbollah (which is unrelated to the Lebanese "Party of God").
He captured Amara on 7 April - two days before the fall of Baghdad - but then received a call on his satellite phone from a CIA agent in Kuwait whom he called Dawud. He said: "When we were speaking, he gave me the order to leave the city within one hour."
Abu Hatem then called the well-known Iraqi writer Kanan Makiya in Washington, who has many contacts within the US administration, asking him to use his influence to try to get the order reversed. By the time this happened, Amara had been thoroughly looted.
Now firmly under Abu Hatem's control, life in the city is much more normal than elsewhere in Iraq, with no curfew - people and cars are allowed on the streets at night.
When the British soldiers were killed in Majar al-Kabir on Tuesday, Abu Hatem was in Baghdad seeing L. Paul Bremer, the head of the US administration in Iraq. He believed that the friction over searches between British troops and local people had been resolved by an agreement the previous day.
According to other sources, Abu Hatem rushed back to Majar al-Kabir where local leaders told him they feared the confiscation of weapons meant that the US and Britain would occupy Iraq for a long time. He told them that they should wait to see if the Americans and British made good on their promise of democracy. But he added that if there was a prolonged occupation he would fight it and asked them if they would support him. They said they would.
The situation in Majar al-Kabir was tense yesterday. A crowd had gathered outside the police station where the four British soldiers died. A guard, provided by Abu Hatem's organisation, said: "It looks dangerous. Let's get out of here. We can't control the situation because our people are angry."
At the local council office, Mr Hashimi, speaking for the other leaders, said they were returning a burned-out British vehicle and had been asked to hand over the suspected killers. But he added: "We don't know who they are because so many people were shooting."
IMO, this is probably the Soddom & Gomorrah impact and may have provided the images for the descriptions of the end of the world in Revelations.
So kill anyone who resists. Then bury them with pig entrails draped over them. Then destroy their home and leave their families destitute.
Then shout over a loudspeaker:
"ANYONE ELSE WANNA F**K WITH US?"
Unfortunately, we are doing anything but. It is pathetic how cheap American lives have become to this Administration. Have we learned nothing from the IDF?. The only thing these Arab mongrels understand is brutal, total war. No mercy. No flinching from civilian deaths. No hesitation in destroying homes of terrorists, and entire neighborhoods if necessary. NO MERCY. But that isn't happening, so our men continue to die, while we restrain ourselves day after day.
(although you didn't ask me specifically...) Yes. Absolutely. If it will save American lives, lower oil prices, and create a docile, non-Muslim state living in sheer terror of American power coming down on them like an axe if they so much as wink. No mercy...that is the "Muslim Golden Rule".
You nailed it.... GW better watch his back because this can impact big! All these American (Brit too) boys dying via barbarian terror. We could get a rebellious military (due to sitting ducks) and Democrat who can win.
The large spending increases are alienating a lot of the Republican base who might stay home. If he is able to stop the body bags coming back from both Iran and Afghanistan and the economy improves and unemployment drops he stands an uphill fight for reelection. Otherwise he is road kill.
Surprised> Hardly. I never underestimate the number of America-haters who live amonsgt us.
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