In response to a couple of previous posts about violence in Iraq, people have asked me how I would react if an army of foreign invaders occupied my country, started arresting people seemingly at random, and did a lot of indiscriminate shooting that killed civilians. Wouldn't I want to attack such people, or at least sympathize with those who did
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1. Iraq, even its Shia population, is very secular. Even the Mahdi Army isn't made up of fanatics; people are going where the action is.
2. Most Iraqis do not have a pure and simple hatred of any outsiders. Perhaps they have a hatred of people who bombed their cities, then starved them, then bombed their cities again, and destroyed their infrastructure, then instituted a very haphazard regime of choa, repression, and the occasional good deed.
3. The reconstruction of sewers, infrastructure etc. is hardly continuing apace and is hardly a priority for the occupation, except insofar as it involves oil. In fact, it's standard military procedure for occupations -- rather than clamp down and rebuild, you clamp down and let things fall apart until the point where folks beg you to take over. Both Shia and Sunni forces were ready to do those takeovers themselves -- they're the ones who kept the hospitals running, who delivered potable water to the slums, etc. There certainly have been some domestic attacks on infrastrucure and some rebuilding by the occupation, but the balance is nowhere near what you describe.
So here's the actual situation:
1. You grew up under a dictator. Perhaps you were a member of his tribe, or an opposing one. To make it easier, we'll make you an oppressed Shia. You hate Saddam because of what he did to your family.
2. Unlike most people, you know a little history. You know that Kuwait's oil historically belonged to your people, but thanks to the Brits and the US, a false country ruled by dictators actually slightly more malevolent than Saddam have it.
3. Saddam goes for the oil and all hell breaks loose. The bombs rain down on you and yours.
4. After the bombs, you're told to rise up against Saddam, and you are sold out to Saddam. Maybe you're shot or tortured. Maybe your friends are instead.
5. The years crawl by. Sanctions are hard; there is no money or meterial to keep the water treatment plants running. Occasional bombing runs continue. Your children cry whenever a plane passes overhead. One or more of them dies of malnutrition, lack of vaccinations, or cholera, thanks to the heavily reduced infrastructure, much of it obviously targeted by the bombing.
6. After your Wahabi enemies attack the US, you are blamed. Agonizing months go by until a full-scale invasion breaks out. What's left of the infrastructure -- your water and light, is targeted.
7. People who don't speak your language march into town, sometimes offering a hand, more often ordering threats and bullets. A few more of your friends are killed. You sit home in the dark. The invaders tell you that you're going to be a democracy now...unless a Shia wins. They dig up someone you never heard of; he's your "new" leader.
8. Saddam is gone, but his orderly dictatorship is replaced by arbitrary chaos. Your home is searched, more friends are shot and killed. No lights. No water. The oil starts pumping again, but when you go to get your old job back, your new boss explains that your pay is 1/5th what it was and if you don't like it, talk to the soldiers who shot your friends.
9. Black market prices are about three times what they were. Perhaps some soldiers stole some gold you may have had stashed, or perhaps someone else did and the soldier, not speaking the language, had no idea who was guilty or innocent and didn't bother to do anything but escort you back home to your hungry kid. Or maybe they beat you first.
Life goes on and for you, things are even worse than they were. You see with your own eyes arbitrary arrests and murders, more than Saddam did in 1991 because he knew that your tribe was still strong. Not these guys though.
It's a year. Still irregular water. Still irregular light. Still no money. Still soldiers waltzing through your holy streets like they own the place. They blow up a mosque. They shoot your cousins. Your kids, the ones still alive, are still hungry. You've been searched and beaten, perhaps spent a little time in prison. Many of your friends are missing. People protest starvation wages or mass firings every day. Saddam'spals are now running the black market.
Now what do you do?
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