« Genocide out of control yet still the UN refuses to act | Main | Last Letters Home Film »
November 18, 2004
Iraq Resistance looks beyond Fallujah - A View From The Outside
Topics: Middle East News and PerspectivesTo keep a decent perspective of situations and circumstances, we often need to step back and look at 'both sides of an equation' with a view toward taking into account data and information that comes from someone or some thing that we don't necessarily agree with or that might at first glance seem unimportant. All of you lawyers and scientists out there have gone through that exercise more times than you can count.
Now the purpose of all this babble is to soften your reaction to the following article. It represents a different perspective from news I've been listening to, it's information I surely want to know about if true, and it certainly seems like a view from the outside:
Reported Nov 19 in Asia Times On-line, Syed Saleem Shahzadis, Bureau Chief, Pakistan, Asia Times On-line:
KARACHI - US military superiority has prevailed in Fallujah, but it is certainly not a knockout blow to the insurgency, which will continue its resistance, at the same time working for the establishment of a political movement involving exiles in Arab and non-Arab nations for the liberation of Iraq from foreign domination.
In the meantime, according to Asia Times On-line information gained from Iraq, the resistance will continue on its present course of limited engagements with US forces in as many different places as possible. Already serious unrest has spread to al-Anbar, Mosul, Samarra, Tikrit, Tamim, Baghdad, Babil and other places.
Command and control of a guerrilla war was mapped out well before the invasion of the country last year. By February 2003, about 35,000 Fedayeen (the paramilitary "men of sacrifice" of Saddam Hussein) had been trained for urban warfare. And Saddam also restored ties with Salafi-based Islamic seminaries in Fallujah, Islamic Sufi groups in Tamim, and coordinated a strategy under which these groups agreed to coordinate with Ba'ath Party security committees.
A key element of the resistance was that officially trained Iraqi militias and Ba'ath Party members would not themselves commit to full battle. They recruited civilians, who were given training and equipped with arms and ammunition. These latter forces, mostly religiously motivated zealots, were the cannon fodder. This was amply illustrated in Fallujah, where the leaders and "professional" soldiers had left long before the US assault on the city began.
The fleeing guerrillas took refuge in other parts of al-Anbar province in which Fallujah is located, while their colleagues in al-Tamim, Baquba and Mosul carried out organized attacks. In Mosul, the Iraqi resistance took control of the city for a time and then melted away. The strategy is aimed at spreading US forces and demoralizing the Iraqi troops which fight with them - there have been reports of widespread desertions.
Political battlefield
A number of important Ba'ath Party members were assigned to Iraqi intelligence missions abroad during Saddam's time. After the US occupation of Iraq these Ba'athists mostly took refuge in Syria, where they at present form a strong political movement. Similar groups are believed to exist in Egypt, Sudan, Russia, China, France and Libya. Their aim is to organize themselves into some form of a "government in exile".
The Iraqi Ba'ath Party and the Syrian Ba'ath Party have a long history of differences that badly dented the pan-Arab dream of a united Arab republic comprising Iraq, Egypt and Syria, as well as liberated Palestine. However, well before the war, Saddam resolved many differences with Syria and the government there strongly opposed the US attack on Iraq. But under immense US pressure, Syria was not in a position to support the Iraqi resistance. Nevertheless, a second tier of the Ba'ath Party in Syria is strongly in support of the Iraqi resistance, so they have given shelter to their Iraqi counterparts.
A significant development in the Iraqi resistance is their Arab-language websites, which release photographs and information on the resistance on a daily basis. Clearly organized groups are behind these sites, for as soon as one website is shut down, another springs up. Read More ...
Again, if this is all true it is information we need to know, but surely our CIA is on this stuff like bees on honey. That is if they haven't all quit post-election or that they are too worn out from sabotaging the Bush Administration's policy.
For a historical perspective on how large urban battles have always been part of a larger campaign, particulary in light of 'Iraq Resistance looks beyond Fallujah - A View From The Outside', click over to Belmont Club Here...
Posted by Hyscience at November 18, 2004 6:54 PM
Articles Related to Middle East News and Perspectives:
