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Times Mag Journalist, Michael Ware, Plays Insurgent Conduit
TONY JONES: How did that transformation in these people take place. Because you tell an extraordinary story of old Baathists who have completely changed their entire outlook and their ways of life?MICHAEL WARE: Absolutely. I've been tracking the insurgency for over a year now. I've been joining their groups, visiting then in their safe houses, their villages, I've been travelling with them, I've seen their weapons caches, I've been trying to keep as close tabs as possible over the last 12 months. I've seen the shift. Men I know, professional military officers from the Republican Guards, the secret police, these men are in the military for a career. They fought for their nation. Two years ago they were out drinking and whoring under the regime, a year ago they're out defending their homes. Now, they're talking about how they want an Islamic state for Iraq. They didn't dream of that six months ago. Sharia law, they want a pan-Islamic Khilafati, they now adhere to the extremist teachings in Saudi Arabia, they didn't care about anything beyond their borders before now. ...TONY JONES: Michael, why are they letting you get behind this curtain? Is there a message they are wanting you to get out through Time magazine to the rest of the world? MICHAEL WARE: Clearly, these men, just like the American military I deal with and the public affairs officers who stick to me like glue and only let me see what they want me to see when I'm with them, so it is with the Jihadis. They're showing me what they want me to see, which is, to be truthful, quite a lot, but they know anything I see or hear is public record. It's their responsibility to confine their information. This is what I do. Yeah, they do want to get a message out. They're so media savvy. If they weren't before, they've learnt it, they've polished it. Even a year ago when I was meeting these nationalist guerrillas who then were ill formed, not yet in clear command and control organisations, even then they were saying to me, "This war is not going to be won on the battlefield. We can't hope to defeat the Americans. It's going to be won in the living rooms of Iraq and Middle America, it's going to be won on television." They were saying, "We can maintain this, we can, we have, we can sustain this longer than your political will will last. Before your people call you home." Again, that's a part of it now, they're saying, "We're here and we're not going away," and they want to say that to the West. They can tell Arabic channels this until the cows come home, but to have it coming through an American iconic publication like Time magazine, people will listen. And look, the fact is it's true. They have camps, they have what they had in Afghanistan. This is another north-west frontier province like Pakistan, where they can roam free within this territorial confine. I've seen these places and no one can go in there. The Americans can't, not unless they want to lay waste to the place, and they will miss them anyway. The Iraqis have nothing to throw at this, Allawi is powerless, just like Musharraf in Pakistan, a threat in his own country from a safe haven that he can't touch. TONY JONES: Michael, we're almost out of time. We have about a minute of satellite left. Let me just ask you quickly - what's your conclusion from all of this? How can it end? Can they be defeated? MICHAEL WARE: This is a big one. They call this a world war until judgment day, maintaining a state of perpetual jihad. We're not going to defeat this here in Iraq.
Posted by: Captain America 2005-09-23 |
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