Foes of U.S. in Iraq Criticize Insurgents

[dArKeR]

By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service

BAGHDAD, June 25 -- Key Iraqi opponents of the U.S. occupation expressed unease Friday over the wave of insurgent attacks that killed more than 100 Iraqis a day earlier, and rejected efforts by foreign guerrillas to take the lead in the insurgency and mate it with the international jihad advocated by Osama bin Laden.

The objections -- from anti-U.S. Shiite and Sunni Muslim leaders, including rebellious cleric Moqtada Sadr, and even from militia fighters in the embattled city of Fallujah -- arose in part from revulsion at the fact that victims of the car bombings and guerrilla assaults in six cities and towns Thursday were overwhelmingly Iraqis. But they also betrayed Iraqi nationalist concerns that the fight against U.S. occupation forces risked being hijacked by Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian whom U.S. officials describe as a paladin in bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

"We do not need anyone from outside the borders to stand with us and spill the blood of our sons in Iraq," Ahmed Abdul Ghafour Samarrae, a Sunni cleric with a wide following, declared in his Friday sermon at Umm al Qurra mosque in Baghdad.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5662-2004Jun25.html

[struggle4progress]

1. Iraqis opposed to US occupation should consider nonviolence. eom

[daleo]

3. This is would be nice, but it seems unrealistic in this case

The U.S. military and right wing power structure is not likely to take non-violence seriously. People whose mindsets include invasion, shock and awe, torture, and collateral damage are not likely to be affected by non-violent protest, unfortunately. Perhaps after Bush is gone, negotiation and non-violence will have a better chance of resolving things.

[struggle4progress]

4. Nonviolence never persuades the SOBs: it aims at ...

the rest of the world.

[AtTheEndOfTheDay]

5. Yeah. What was Gandhi thinking?

[Aidoneus]

7. entirely incomperable matters

With the resources at his disposal, the force of a feather could have toppled the retreating imperialist force occupying India. Parachute Gandhi into Gaza, Grozny, or Baghdad with the same game against the occupying forces there and he's just another statistic.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

2. This sounds like a piece of U. S. planted propaganda to me...

It's my understanding that most of the Iraqis that were killed during the attacks were Iraqi policemen hired by the U. S. occupation force.

There is also the matter of the alleged Iraqi "safe house" that was blown to bits by the U. S. along with 15-20 people. We were told they were Iraqi "insurgents", but why do I get the sense that they were just another group of Iraqi civilians caught in the crossfire?

[keithyboy]

6. And you believe Abu Musab Zarqawi, is behind the bombings because....

please give me some substantial proof. If it is because the person identifies himself as Zargawi that aint enough proof for me. Whoever is doing this get pleasure from killing Arabs. Now think real hard......