[whataretheysaying] Mary Madigan: Friendlies, the Fence-sitters, and the Fuckos

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Posted by Mary Madigan:
Friendlies, the Fence-sitters, and the Fuckos
http://whataretheysaying.powerblogs.com/posts/1197308943.shtml


   [1]Michael Totten reports from Iraq's the City of Mosques, Fallujah

     "How do you feel about the people who live here?" I said.

     "My opinion of the people here has changed, too," he said.
     "Originally, because of the shape the city was in, I didn't have a
     whole lot of respect for the people. But now, after seeing how much
     these people have changed, and understanding that they were under a
     dictatorship...I didn't really understand what a dictatorship was.
     These people are working hard. They have good family values. Their
     religious faith is incredible compared to how people are in the
     States. Even people who think they're religious in the States,
     they're nothing compared to the people here. They have city-wide
     prayers every day, you know? Honestly, I have a lot of respect for
     the people here."

     I hear criticism of Iraqis of some kind almost every day when I'm
     in Iraq. There is a lot to criticize. Iraq is a broken country. Its
     infrastructure and economy are shot, its political culture
     dysfunctional. In my experience, though, contempt for Iraqi culture
     specifically, and Arabs and Islam more generally, is far more
     prevalent in the American civilian population, even in liberal
     coastal cities, than it is among American soldiers and Marines who
     interact with Iraqis every day, forge sometimes intense personal
     bonds with Iraqis, eat Iraqi food, and speak at least a little
     Arabic. Stereotypes about racist and psychotic Marines, as well as
     fanatical and psychotic Iraqis, can't survive a lengthy trip to
     Fallujah, at least not to the Fallujah of late 2007...

     ..Some of the insurgents reportedly came from places as far from
     Iraq as Chechnya. They weren't all Iraqis, and they weren't even
     all Sunni Arabs. In Ramadi around 90 percent of captured insurgents
     are Iraqis, but around 90 percent of suicide bombers and Al Qaeda
     in Iraq leaders are from another country. Fallujah, though, is not
     the same place as Ramadi. It has been meaner and murkier for the
     duration of the conflict.

     "Do you think most of these guys were from here, or from somewhere
     else?" I said.

     "I don't think they were from here," he said. "I know how these
     people are and how their culture is. I honestly don't think they
     would fight anywhere close to their families or anything that they
     care about, just on the chance that somebody would get hurt. Just
     like back in the States. If you wanted to fight, you wouldn't start
     a war in your house. You would want to go somewhere else."

   [2]..more.

References

   1. http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001545.html
   2. http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001545.html