What is noteworthy from the article above is the following:
The statements all commanded Iraqis to continue fighting the American military until it had left the country completely; nearly 130,000 troops remain. The statements also insisted, in unusually clear language, that Iraqis not turn their violence on one another.
This appears to be a noteworthy change for the former Hussein ally, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who was deputy chairman of Mr. Hussein’s Revolutionary Command Council and who American officials say has been financing and organizing Baathist insurgents.
We “have decided in this blessed day to direct all combat effort towards the invaders,” Mr. Douri’s statement said, “and forbid absolutely the killing of Iraqis or fighting them in all the formations and organs of the agent’s authority — in the so-called army, police, Awakening and the administration agencies — except for what is required in self-defense, if some spies in these agencies try to stop the resistance or harm them.”
In a way this a victory for the US because it gives hope that Iraqis by and large are prepared to accept the existing government. It's not a good omen for US troops based outside the cities who may begin to experience sustained mortar attacks and whatnot. If we marched to the airport unarmed and left in a purple spaceship, the insurgents would claim they chased us out. Would the average Iraqi buy that? Probably not.
The statements all commanded Iraqis to continue fighting the American military until it had left the country completely; nearly 130,000 troops remain. The statements also insisted, in unusually clear language, that Iraqis not turn their violence on one another.
This appears to be a noteworthy change for the former Hussein ally, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who was deputy chairman of Mr. Hussein’s Revolutionary Command Council and who American officials say has been financing and organizing Baathist insurgents.
We “have decided in this blessed day to direct all combat effort towards the invaders,” Mr. Douri’s statement said, “and forbid absolutely the killing of Iraqis or fighting them in all the formations and organs of the agent’s authority — in the so-called army, police, Awakening and the administration agencies — except for what is required in self-defense, if some spies in these agencies try to stop the resistance or harm them.”
In a way this a victory for the US because it gives hope that Iraqis by and large are prepared to accept the existing government. It's not a good omen for US troops based outside the cities who may begin to experience sustained mortar attacks and whatnot. If we marched to the airport unarmed and left in a purple spaceship, the insurgents would claim they chased us out. Would the average Iraqi buy that? Probably not.
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