Iraqi raids fostering fresh enemies

[NNN0LHI]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/10/06/MN310013.DTL

Fallujah, Iraq -- Five months after President Bush declared the end of "major combat" in Iraq,

the war may indeed be over for most of the country.

But not for Sheikh Mishkhen al Jumaili. Last month, American troops killed nine of his relatives, including his son, in the span of just four days.

"They mean to kill as many Iraqis as possible," said al Jumaili, weeping silently as his younger relatives quietly lowered Beijiya's coffin into the parched yellow cemetery ground.

Bowing slightly over the red velvet cloth that draped the coffin of his cousin Beijiya, al Jumaili said a solemn prayer and wiped his eyes. Then he turned his back and stepped away, unable to watch yet another member of his extended family vanish under heavy chunks of dry clay.

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[ConcernedCanuk]

1. "All the tribes are suffering. This is murder."

From the article:

"The day before that, an early morning U.S. aerial attack on a farmhouse in the village of al Sajr, near Fallujah, killed al Jumaili's sleeping son, Ali, his nephew, Salem, and Salem's son, Saadi. Locals said American officials apologized for the attack, saying it was a mistake.

"Lately they killed too many al Jumaili in Fallujah," said al Jumaili. "All the tribes are suffering. This is murder."


<snip>

A tribal leader himself, al Jumaili sits on the 22-seat City Council in the town of Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad. He is the kind of influential Iraqi the U.S. occupation authorities need as an ally if Washington's dreams of a stable, functioning country are to be realized. Instead, al Jumaili has become one of America's growing number of enemies, especially in this volatile region known as the Sunni triangle.

A potential hotbed of resistance from the start -- former dictator Saddam Hussein enjoyed most of his support in this part of Iraq -- the postwar death toll among local civilians has eroded whatever trust local people had for the U.S. troops that overthrew Hussein's regime. Important members of the community, like al Jumaili, went from being supportive of the U.S.-led alliance to being openly anti-American.

<snip>

This is a fairly long article - but worth the read

Disturbing - but I believe it's an eye-opener

EROSION OF TRUST

[DuctapeFatwa]

2. Well, yes, the whole idea is to kill Iraqis and seize oil

I don't hear Halliburton owners complaining.