« Fallujah and the Black Watch | Main | Two-thirds of Britons against the war »
November 09, 2004
The battle for Fallujah: freedom fighters and terrorists
The BBC have a reporter in Fallujah (‘Watching tragedy engulf my city’). He reports:
“I was with some of the Falluja fighters earlier. They looked tired - but their spirits were high and they were singing. Recently, many Iraqis from other parts of the country have been joining the local men against the Americans.”
Blair apparently believes that the Fallujans are fighting against democracy not against an army of occupation. This will no doubt delight the American government, but it might surprise the Fallujans. He said:
“Defeat of terrorism in Iraq is defeat for this new and virulent form of global terrorism everywhere.”
During and after the Second World War, we regarded the anti-fascist resistance in France, Yugoslavia, Greece and China etc. as heroic. Now I suppose they would be regarded as terrorists.
The form that resistance can take varies from ‘Ghandian’ non-violence to the abhorrent tactics of the suicide bomber and hostage taker. The latter are horrible and must be opposed in every possible way, but the freedom fighter defending his own city or village is a different matter. We should be trying to talk to him.
The danger now is that the action in Fallujah, ordered by a Shiite prime minister against a Sunni population, will not lead to a peaceful election in which political adversaries can agree to a peaceful system of resolving differences, but to civil war.
The events in Iraq underline the urgency of impeaching Blair, otherwise there may be even worse to follow.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3996111.stm
www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1346750,00.html
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3993277.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at November 9, 2004 03:31 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.skakagrall.com/cgi-bin/MT/mt-tb.cgi/124