Fear
It seems that, more and more, the majority of the violence here is focused on the Iraqis themselves. The most violent terrorist attacks in this region recently have been on Iraqi government officials and Iraqi security forces. I think the terrorists have diverted their attention to attacking the Iraqi Security Forces for a very important strategic reason.
The terrorists have realized that US forces aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. We’re a force that is unstoppable. They can cause injury to us, and sure, the rising death toll my have sway on the opinions of the people back home, but they’re not getting to us here. We don’t scare easily.
It’s the Iraqis who are weak, who are vulnerable right now because they are trying to get on their feet. The terrorists have launched a massive information war, trying to put fear into the Iraqi people’s hearts, which is where they are going to be more successful.
There are dvds circulating around Mosul of beheadings and horrible images meant to intimidate the people. There are black lists, or hit lists, out on the streets containing the names of the people who are working with the Coalition. Every day a leader who is working with the Coalition is assassinated. Every day more of our interpreters quit because they are afraid. The residents of the city face death threats, drive-bys and kidnappings for working with us.
People are scared, and rightfully so. If they’re caught working for us, the terrorists will kill them, if they’re caught working against us, we will kill them.
The Iraqi Security Forces- the Iraqi National Guard, Iraqi Police, and the Border Patrol- are supposed to be the buffer for the residents of the city. But they face these threats every day as well. Members of the ISF are assassinated and kidnapped. They fear for the safety of their families.
So, in the age of information warfare, it’s not about the amount of firepower you have, it’s about the strategic way that you mess with the enemies mind. Small attacks and assassinations can have a larger effect on the people than an all out offensive that lasts for just a few days.
This is the biggest problem right now. Fear.
121 Comments:
Dear BB - could you clarify something for me? You call the insurgents terrorists. The news here is so slanted both right and left one can't get a true story.
To me terrorist would mean people coming to take advantage of the situation to create chaos.
Insurgents would be Iraqis who wether through an ego trip or what feels to them genuine are deciding to use military means rather than political.
I don't mean this quiestion in any way to be critical of what you are all doing. You are fighting and dying so we can have the freedom to live our self obsessed soft lives here.
I'm just trying to understand what looks from here as a situation devolving into a guerilla war where a growing number of Iraqis feel they can only control their country by kicking out the US. Should they be called terrorists or insurgents, regardless of the wrongness of their position? Words have so much power to affect how we perceive.
I know there are so many Iraqis caught in the middle who just want to have a happy free life. But is there a growing number who believe our overall policy is to install a puppet goverment and so they are fighting back.
I hope I have not written in an offensive way. I have never been in anything approaching a military situation. If I have caused any harm in writing this way, let me know so I can avoid it in future posts.
Your blog is so appreciated. Stay safe!
Jillaurie Crane
Jillaurie
I am sure BB would have a better answer than me, but being an Iraqi I know for a fact that those insurgents and terrorists are no where near representing the "normal majority" of the Iraqi people. And as mentioned in the post the media is playing into their hands big time, because its only showing Iraqis screaming at the multi national forces and asking them to leave. Yes no Iraqi wants his country occupied, but at the same time, no Iraqi is supporting these beheadings and kidnappings.And they know, that if the forces do leave a civil war is bound to happen....
Its those who have lost out from the removal of the tyrant regime, together with non Iraqi Arabs(Al qaeda, zarqawi criminals) and the mehdi militia who are commiting these atrocious crimes. the majority of Iraqis just want to live in peace and security...
Take care...
Thank you so much for this. Each day I pray for all the people in the world who are suffering and I have gratitude I can be sick today and get to be in my bed writing on my wireless laptop.
I know that Iraqis only want the freedom and safety I have every day in my life. Before it became so dangerous for foreigners, I was looking for a way to come to Iraq and help with the rebuilding. I am a psychotherapist so I am best at rebuilding shattered psyches but I can hammer OK too.
I still want to help. What do you need that we can do from this distance? If you'd like to reply to me directly you can use my blog livejournal.com/users/deercancer22. I am about to put up a post of how to help Haitian flood vicitims so you could answer there.
Jillaurie
Fear is a propaganda weapon that goes back to ancient times. The Mongol army, for example, would give an ultimatum to a city they besieged, and while the city was mulling over how to respond, they would bring forward all the heads they decapitated from the last city that resisted them, and build a small mountain out of them. The fear instilled into the city's inhabitants, from seeing those heads, would cause them to surrender the city.
Over time, what has it been that has vanquished fear and dread? In some cases it was the desire to be free; and in other cases, the desire to rule and grasp power. Sometimes a combination of both.
Yes, ordinary Iraqi citizens are faced with fearful events; blacklists; death squads; car bombs; beheadings; all manner of atrocity is committed against the good people of Iraq. What is it that will make these Iraqis rise up against the thugs and criminals in their midst? It will have to be the desire to be free, and the desire to run their own affairs. I am nearly at a turning point in my attitude toward the war there, because I think once major operational insurgent units are eliminated, it will become, then, a question of whether the Iraqi people want to be sheep and cattle for some new incarnation of a Saddam, OR do they want Democracy? If it's the former, no amount of our intervention will give Democracy to them. If it's the latter, even if we pull out, no pseudo-Jihad will stop them.
I do support the location and elimination of terrorists wherever they may be. But beyond a certain point in eliminating major insurgent units, when it's down to small cells, it ceases to become a job for conventional military forces, and more of a job for Intelligence and Special Operations shooters, to put the disguise on, gather the intelligence, and act on it. And when we're at that point, I think then the infantry and armor and other heavy conventional units should be able to come back home--in victory for their portion of the job.
Hi. I just wanted to say Thank you for serving your country. I know it is very very hard. Keep your chin up and smile. Lots of people are praying for the soldiers over there. We have faith in you. Thank you thank you thank you.
Some non allowed news about fearing and terrorizing Iraqi people:
Al-Fallujah: vicious US bombing targets civilians.
As US media such as the Associated Press (AP) trumpeted the official US military line that American war planes had blasted the strongholds of the illusive Abu Mus‘ab az-Zarqawi whom they refer to as a “terrorist mastermind” for the n-th time, the correspondent of Mafakrat al-Islam on the ground in al-Fallujah reported in a dispatch posted at 4:55am Mecca time that American aircraft had rocketed the home of a local civilian. Al-Hajj Thamir as-Salim, whose house was destroyed, was a pharmacist who ran the al-Abrar Pharmacy in the city.
As-Salim’s house lay in the al-Jumhuriyah neighborhood of the city, across from the ar-Rawi Mosque. The home was completely destroyed and adjacent ones were severely damaged and two children, three women and three men and one teenager were killed in the savage American attack. Thirteen others were wounded in the raid - four children, three men, six women.
In a dispatch posted at 6am Mecca time (7am local time) the correspondent reported that US planes were still prowling the skies over the site of the US bombing, making it dangerous for rescuers to approach it.
US forces also bombed a house in the ash-Shuhada’ neighborhood at about 5:00am local time. Two Kurdish youths who made shoes were killed in that raid, according to Mafkarat al-Islam’s correspondent.
Hospital sources in al-Fallujah were quoted by the AP as saying that 11 persons were killed in the American bomb raid, but the American news agency noted that the US “military regularly accuses hospital of inflating casualty figures.” The US military has no presence in al-Fallujah, so it has no way of verifying hospital figures in the defiant city.
Dr. ‘Adil Khamis of al-Fallujah General Hospital was quoted by AP as saying that three women and four children were among the nine people killed in the al-Jumhuriyah bombing and that twelve were injured there, including six women and three children. AP quoted al-Khamis as saying that “two more people” were killed in the bombing of the house in ash-Shuhada’.
The mendacious US military announced that their attack on as-Salim the pharmacist’s house was a “precision strike” carried out at about 1am local time and that precautions were taken to ensure that “no innocent civilians were present” at the time of the strikes.
The US military claimed that the second raid, in which two Kurdish shoemakers were killed, targeted a building where “members of az-Zarqawi’s network were believed to be meeting.”
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