Life Behind Enemy Lines
http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101031215/story.html
An inside look at the Baathists, terrorists, Islamists and disaffected
Iraqis fighting U.S. troops.
By Brian Bennett and Michael Ware I Baghdad
Posted Sunday, December 7, 2003
For Abu Ali, lethal rocket strikes against the U.S. occupation army
are part of the regular routine. At the modest farmhouse of a fellow
member of his network of insurgents one recent evening, Abu Ali—the
nom de guerre he has chosen—welcomes seven fighters into a room lined
with worn sofas. Despite the steady whoomp-whoomp of circling U.S.
helicopters, the insurgents sit back, chain-smoking and chatting about
weapons, tactics, the long lines to get gasoline, whose children are
starting to crawl. A young man spreads a plastic sheet on the floor
and lays out plates of roasted chicken, rice, bean soup and boiled
vegetables. As the men eat, the talk is jovial, full of laughter and
noisy boasting. The presence of a reporter for a U.S. magazine does
not seem to faze them.
"American soldier very afraid," roars Abu Ali. "We are not." A
grinning fighter brags about what would have happened if he had known
President George W. Bush would be in the Baghdad airport complex on
Thanksgiving Day. "We would have .. whoosh!" he says, motioning as if
firing a shoulder-launched missile.
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