An Iraqi patriot, a Shia, speaks his mind to a reporter from the main US
infotainment media. Now even US citizens can, if they want, understand what
fuels the popular resistance against the US in Iraq (and in so many other
places around the World - and never mind thee sneering single quotation
marks). But Americans do not really want to listen to unprogrammatic
"radicals" like this. Their government want him and his compatriots silenced
(their knowledge, experience, their factual understanding of events
suppressed as "unfit" and non-PC) and such "terrorists" killed, tortured,
indefinitely incarcerated, enslaved, subjected. For the ONLY relationship
the US understands and can have with foreign nations and peoples, having
collectively renounced multilateralism and international law, is the one of
master to slave.

"I know the Americans have better weapons. They have better plans. They have
uniforms that cost $3,000, and we have only our clothes," Eisa said. "But I
have principles. I have holy land to defend. I have family to protect, so I
feel stronger than them. The occupation forces are nothing but mercenaries
who fight for money, so I feel stronger."
<...>
"I am old enough now to differentiate between occupation and freedom," he
said. "It's not true that the Americans came to get rid of Saddam. It was
only a trick to occupy the country."

"We all know that Bush announced twice that this is a crusade. So we know
they are targeting a certain group," the Shiites, he said. "We know the
strategic importance of Iraq in the region and the wealth of our country.
They want to control it. They want to control our oil, our wealth and the
world."

"There is something called patriotism," he added. "I like my country, and I
saw the U.S. forces did not come to protect us. So I wanted to follow the
leader who can demand my rights and defeat the occupation. The U.S. forces
are occupiers, so we have to resist them."
<...>

The US national body politic and even the wider US public will NEVER
understand such "strange", "radical" sentiments and ideas - that's a safe
comment and prediction to make (supported by much infamous imperial
history)! The non US-UK-Zionist World understand them all too well.

Quoting Donald Dumsfeld speaking to West Point graduates on May 29th, 2004
[quote begin]:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0529-01.htm

"He [Rumsfeld] said on the latest front, in Iraq where the Bush
administration is facing continued fighting that is undermining efforts to
end the U.S. occupation, "We are facing a test of wills, with an enemy that
seeks to derail the Iraqi people's path to self-governance."

"The extremists know the rise of a free, self-governing Iraq, respectful of
all religions - would deal the terrorists a decisive blow," Rumsfeld said.
"Its success depends on encouraging friends and allies with whom we are so
interdependent to not be terrorized by threats or isolated by fear." [End
quote]

A fresh lie with every new sentence. Grotesque mendacity, but the craziest
part is that these future "warriors" CLAPPED their hands instead of laughing
or weeping or protesting outright. They have no sense of either comedy or
tragedy or reality. Surreal!

Nes

*****************************************************************
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A1455-2004Aug14?language=printer

Sunday, August 15, 2004; Page A22

To Mahdi Militiaman, Firing on Americans Is Act of 'Patriotism'
By Saad Sarhan and Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service

NAJAF, Iraq, Aug. 14 -- Ahmed Eisa sent his wife and two young children out
of Najaf "to make sure there is someone to remember me after I die" and took
up his post near the shrine of Ali, he said, with an old AK-47 rifle to
shoot at U.S. soldiers.

He says he is willing to die -- he insists he wants to die -- with the Mahdi
Army, a militia loyal to a young Shiite cleric, because he is convinced that
the United States intends to stay in Iraq and oppress Shiite Muslims.

As negotiations to end fighting in Najaf broke down Saturday, U.S. and Iraqi
soldiers again prepared for an assault on the followers of the cleric,
Moqtada Sadr. And on the other side of the sprawling cemetery that surrounds
the shrine, Sadr's followers also prepared for battle.

Eisa, 34, who usually works in a graphics shop designing business cards and
stationery, is a gunman for the Mahdi Army. He prefers the title sniper, but
in fact, his ancient Kalashnikov is not very accurate, and the bullets often
jam in the mechanism.

His job does not require accuracy, though.

"I am supposed to shoot at the American tanks to harass them, to draw their
attention, to give my colleague some time to fire at them with an RPG" -- a
rocket-propelled grenade, he said.

Eisa performed that duty five times during the recent fighting, darting from
his position in the second line of Mahdi Army fighters. The first line hides
behind a wall next to the cemetery, and the second line is poised in the
warren of century-old brown brick houses that abuts the cemetery.

The Americans are on the other side. In between, among tombs as old as 1,300
years, are the contested killing grounds.

"I know the Americans have better weapons. They have better plans. They have
uniforms that cost $3,000, and we have only our clothes," Eisa said. "But I
have principles. I have holy land to defend. I have family to protect, so I
feel stronger than them. The occupation forces are nothing but mercenaries
who fight for money, so I feel stronger."

Eisa's fervor is shared by his fellow fighters in the Mahdi Army, though his
background is not. Sadr has grown his militia -- their self-adopted name of
army is somewhat grandiose -- from poor and young Shiites drawn to his
revolutionary rhetoric. Eisa, however, is a graduate of a computer
vocational college, an educated man who could be called middle-class and
middle-aged.

A lean man at 5-foot-7 and 150 pounds, his pale face, glasses and
uncalloused hands suggest a life spent indoors more than out. A full beard
indicates his faith.

Eisa -- whose name means Jesus, considered a prophet in Islam -- explained
in a lengthy telephone interview and further conversations in Najaf how he
arrived at this point. For Iraq's Shiites, a sense of oppression comes
legitimately. Shiites suffered under former president Saddam Hussein, and
Eisa said he counts 27 relatives who were executed during that three-decade
era.

"We don't even know where they were buried," he said.

After high school, Eisa fulfilled his compulsory military duty in the
Republican Guard. He deserted three times, he said, which was not unusual
for men living in the harsh conditions of the military. Each time, he
returned under an amnesty.

He finished his service in 1993, then attended computer classes at a
technological institute. He finished, got married and in 1998 began working
in a graphics shop. Eisa said he welcomed the fall of Hussein, but not the
U.S. occupation.

"I am old enough now to differentiate between occupation and freedom," he
said. "It's not true that the Americans came to get rid of Saddam. It was
only a trick to occupy the country."

"We all know that Bush announced twice that this is a crusade. So we know
they are targeting a certain group," the Shiites, he said. "We know the
strategic importance of Iraq in the region and the wealth of our country.
They want to control it. They want to control our oil, our wealth and the
world."

"There is something called patriotism," he added. "I like my country, and I
saw the U.S. forces did not come to protect us. So I wanted to follow the
leader who can demand my rights and defeat the occupation. The U.S. forces
are occupiers, so we have to resist them."

Eisa fought in what he calls "the first uprising" against the Americans,
fierce street fighting in Najaf between U.S. forces and insurgents in April
that left hundreds of Iraqis dead. The Iraqi government that officially took
power June 28 is nothing but a puppet of the Americans, he said, and Eisa
willingly answered the call to arms nine days ago when fighting broke out
again.

He kissed his daughter, 3-year-old Um Albanin, and his 6-month-old son,
Mohammed Ali, and sent them with his wife to the safer outskirts of Najaf.
He then joined his unit, the 315th Battalion.

The worst fighting was Thursday, he said.

"I smelled the weapons, and the blood of dead people," Eisa said, recounting
the pitched battle in the graveyard that resulted in scores of casualties.
"I don't know how many were killed. I heard the bullets and even felt the
heat of the bullets, but God protects me.

"Sometimes we had wounded people, and we couldn't evacuate them because I
didn't want to leave my post. I just wanted to die for my cause. So I stayed
in my place, hoping to become a martyr.

"I saw one of my colleagues try to attack a tank with his RPG. The U.S.
soldier shot him in the head, about 25 meters from me. His head was
destroyed. It was a terrible scene."

As the fighting stopped Saturday while negotiators tried to work out a
cease-fire, Eisa mixed in a throng of thousands of supporters who came from
inside and outside Najaf to show their support for the Mahdi Army. They
milled about outside the shrine. When he found a colleague he had not seen
since the battle, the two hugged.

Eisa has an identity card -- "Sadr's Martyr Division," it says -- but like
the others in the militia, he doesn't have a uniform. He wears loose fitting
black pants, a casual shirt and a green cloth around his wrist to signify
closeness to Allah.

As Sadr passed the crowd, Eisa joined in chants, thrusting his fist in the
air and stamping his feet. "Long live Sadr! Allawi and the government are
blasphemous," he shouted, referring to Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

The temporary lull in fighting during the negotiations boosted the spirits
of the men. "This is a great victory for the Iraqis and the Mahdi Army,"
Eisa said. "This is evidence that we defeated the occupation forces and we
are a legitimate resistance demanding the Iraqi's rights. This is victory."

But if so, it was short-lived. The negotiations faltered late in the day.
Eisa and the other militiamen slipped back to their posts at the edge of the
cemetery, waiting for night. Waiting for the Americans.

Struck reported from Baghdad.