Dan Feidt's log on Minnesota, Information Operations, spinstorms and latent contradictions.
Mac Weekly interview, October 10, 2003:
Dan Feidt: There have been a lot of violent incidents of in Sadr City recently, because the Americans have detained some clerics that follow Sadr. Is that a sign that the peace between the Shia religious groups and the United States is fraying?
Prof. Rashid Khalidi: It is not clear whether in fact what the United States is doing with Muqtada al-Sadr—in this place called Sadr City which is named for a relative of his who was killed by the Baathists—is going to lead to alienation of the Shia from the United States. Sadr doesn’t represent all the Shia. He is one factional leader. He is charismatic, he is popular but there are a lot of other people there.
The big question is A: how alienated are people in Iraq going to be, Shia, by American actions and policies, and B: to what extent will the United States try to repair its relations with the Shia by making up to Iran. There is an important faction in our government which is trying to do that, just as there’s an important faction in the government trying to sabotage any such possibility. So stay tuned for where the arm wrestling in Washington will end up. That in turn will determine a lot of these things. If The United States totally alienates Iran then one of the few possible means of positively affecting the attitudes of Shia in Iraq will disappear.
I have been playing Johnny Cash's cover of U2's One over and over the last few days. The burning away of any cohesion, any plan, any progression in Iraq has forced me to step back and do some soul searching. What was the point, anyway? I really tried to find out, in my own half-assed roundabout kind of way.
I talked for a while with a Macalester geography professor before lunch. Everyone was expecting Sadr to make a move at some point, he said, but it seems the U.S. never had a plan to handle him, and no one thought that it would go this far.
Before the war he tried hard to find out from his connections in Washington if there was, in fact, a postwar plan. There was none, of course, and no one ever told him who was ultimately in charge of making that plan.
So was it a sin of omission? Was the plan to bring it all crashing down? Why would people that had agitated against Saddam for years finally wipe him out without a playbook?
Since this stretch of HongPong.com started in March 2003, I can't say exactly what my point was; I just wanted to highlight what I saw was wrong in the war that was just getting underway.
On the fifth post, I pointed out that they weren't planning, and it alarmed professional policymakers. I tried to highlight the importance of these weird and disturbing documents like the Clean Break.
Now it's all coming down; can I say that I was surprised? Did I do enough to prevent this? Could I have influenced a damn thing?
If I feel upset that it might be flying to bits, I can only imagine how the many knowledgeable and concerned people I've met over the past few years feel about the grand failure to prevent what awaits us tomorrow. I was just one damn student.
I tried to conduct some journalism, but even after this interview, I didn't have a damnfool idea of what action I ought to take. At least I asked a question about Sadr.
As Radiohead says, "We tried but there was nothing we could do."
I found the following in a thread on Billmon.org, attached to a very insightful piece illustrating that anger towards Israel is not something we can surgically rip out of the Middle East.
This was posted by the German magazin der Spiegel and was taken from an the islamic weblog qoqaz.com they translated from the arabic and I have translated from the German. It regards the resistance in falludja.Posted by HongPong at April 8, 2004 05:06 PMAl-Anbari: God is Great!
Al-Ramadi: Peace!
Al-Anbari: Peace upon you!
Al-Ramadi: Peace and the Mercy of God upon You!
Al-Ramadi: Are you still alive? (...) Send us news!
Al-Anbari: Wie have smashed the Americans, battles are raging in all the streets.
Al-Ramadi: By God!
Al-Anbari: By God! And we have taken their weapons and equipment.
Al-Ramadi: Were some of them killed as well?
Al-Anbari: Yes the whole troop that was on street 20, was completely destroyed and one of the cars, that was close to mariams house, was burned.
Al-Ramadi: Which Mariam?
Al-Anbari: Remember Mahmud al-Mariam, that lives close to the house of Ibrahim al-Khaschiban? The house behind his.
Al-Ramadi: Ah. Have they gotten in the houses or arrested anyone?
Al-Anbari: No they have not succeeded in getting to this place yet. Perhaps they will come in the night. At the moment they are collecting themselves in the street on which the playground is located close to the house of Safi al-Battah.
Al-Ramadi: Was kind of weapons are the resistance fighters using?
Al-Anbari: Light weapons and grenades.
Al-Ramadi: I have heard that their base in Ramadi was hit hard with mortar fire yesterday..
Al-Anbari: yes, their night was black. (...) The eintire region has risen against them without exception! Interesting is also that most of the Mudschahidin are made up of police and the new army.
Al-Ramadi: God is great! (...)
Al-Anbari: Truly, when you see their weapons you feel that the angels are fighting on our side!
Al-Ramadi: There is no victory except on Gods side!
Al-Anbari: They called me from the school and told me not to come, for the situation didn't allow it. They killed 6 Americans. I felt something pull me there, and I found the battle in the vicinity of our house. And the heroes ran after the Americans (...). When I saw them again, they were carrying the Americans weapons and equipment stained with their blood, they were screaming God is Great!
Al-Ramadi: By God, Arabs and Muslims here are truly very eager, to hear more such news, that cools the breast. I will copy this dialog and show all!
Al-Anbari: God is Great!
Al-Ramadi: And what now? (...)
Al-Anbari: We are at greatest readiness. (...) I will give you the details if I stay alive.
Kamal: I plead God for your safety and victory.
Al-Anbari: The American Armee, that the world fears, has turned out to be a horde of sheep(...).
Kamal: How are Mohammed and the other Mudschahidin?
Al-Anbari: They are well. thank God we had no dead and only two wounded, and their wounds are slight.
Kamal: Who are these two?
Al-Anbari: To be honest, I don't know them, for people in the entire region mobilized, men and women. I didnt think people from this region had so much heroism and courage in them. Mothers even pushed their children to fight.
Kamal: As God wills it! Blessed be the Allmighty!
Al-Anbari: Imagine: I encountered a boy, he was not even 15, and he carried a weapon,but without ammunition (...). When I saw him in his heroism, I ripped out my magazin and gave it to him.
Kamal: Oh God!!! God is Great!!!
Al-Anbari: I also saw a young man, that heroically stood his ground against the Americans and threw after them, and they didnt react to it, even though they were many.
Kamal: Such news calms and strengthens the pride. (...) I would like to ask you a favor.
Al-Anbari: Sure.
Kamal: I wish to make as many copies of this story, as I can and distribute them to all Mudschahidin , that wish to have it, as a small effort on my part, to help strenghen their moral.
Al-Anbari: As God wills!"This conversation with a messenger out of Ramadi appeared today, on wednesday afternoon. As god is my witness, I know this brother, who finds himself at the gulf, for I have worked with him. He with whom he speaks, is his brother in Ramadi. In this conversation is contained news of the Mudschahidin on the battlefield"