U.S. losing hearts and minds of Baghdad Shi'ites

Reuters via msnbc ^ | August 16, 2003 | Andrew Cawthorne

[huck von finn]

BAGHDAD, Aug. 16 — A Baghdad slum that gave a joyous welcome to U.S. troops after Saddam Hussein's fall is now seething in anger at the occupiers' shortcomings.

The sight of cheering Iraqis from the long-oppressed Shi'ite Muslim community was a big psychological boost for the Americans when they rolled into the Iraqi capital's previously named ''Saddam City'' in April.

Now they face daily protests from among the two million residents as growing resentment at the occupation turned into open fury when a helicopter appeared to try to knock off a religious flag on Wednesday.

''We were happy at first when the Americans came. Now they should keep out, no one wants them around,'' shop-owner Jasm Kathai, 40, said. ''What they did to the flag was a grave insult to Islam. There will be consequences.''

Inhabitants of the newly named ''Sadr City'' -- in honour of a top Shi'ite cleric, Ayatollah Sadr, killed by Saddam's security services in 1999 -- say the helicopter tore down the banner.

[PISANO]

Pacification may become necessary!! Ungrateful bas...ds!

[PISANO]

What I remember is that the administration was very vague about how long the US would stay in Iraq

I believe the administration was quite clear. They repeated over and over ad nauseum...... "We will stay as long as necessary and NOT one moment longer."

[EvilOverlord]

I believe the administration was quite clear. They repeated over and over ad nauseum...... "We will stay as long as necessary and NOT one moment longer."

I regard this as deliberate vagueness, since they did not explicitly set expectations for a timeframe (you know...days, weeks, months, years).

This was probably the right thing to do at the time, since there are a ton of groups (including the exiled Iraqis) who would have gone nuts if the President had said at the outset that we would be occupying Iraq for years.

But, as I said before, anyone with any sense knew that this was a long term thing.

[F16Fighter]

Now they face daily protests from among the two million residents as growing resentment at the occupation turned into open fury when a helicopter appeared to try to knock off a religious flag on Wednesday.

Notice the distortion of context as Reuters hopes its readers will "see" this blurb as "protests from among the two million residents."