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In Sunni Triangle, Loss of Privilege Breeds Bitterness
By Daniel Williams, Washington Post Foreign Service.
EFL
Less than a year ago, Ismael Mohammed Juwara lived high in the food chain of President Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. He was a secret policeman feared and respected among his comrades and in his hometown, enjoying a cornucopia of privileges from the government.
"I was a contendah!"
Now, as he scrapes out a living by selling diesel fuel illegally, he is a pariah in the new Iraq. "We were on top of the system. We had dreams," said Juwara, a former member of the Mukhabarat, the intelligence service that reported directly to the now-deposed president. "Now we are the losers. We lost our positions, our status, the security of our families, stability. Curse the Americans. Curse them."
Cue world’s smallest violin . . .
Hundreds of thousands of men from this area, now known as the Sunni Triangle, joined Hussein’s extensive goon squads security apparatus, including the army and multiple police and intelligence agencies. As such, they are mostly outcasts from the new governing system under construction by U.S.-led occupation authorities and their selected Iraqi political allies.
. . . and are not well-loved by the Iraqi people they used to prey upon, either.
. . . People such as Juwara form the core of resistance to the occupation and the developing order, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials. Frequently referred to as Baathist remnants or dead-enders, they are resentful and unwilling to accept their lot quietly. For that, they make no apologies. "Was being a Baathist some sort of disease?" Juwara said, raising his voice suddenly. "Was serving the country some sort of crime?" . . .
Uh, yeah, being a Baathist secret police goon was a crime.
Besides his economic woes, Juwara expressed deep feelings of humiliation.
Look out! He's gonna seethe!
He told of a trip to the Central Bank in Baghdad on a quest for records of his account in Thuluiya. He said the bank records were looted after the war. "You know what they told me? ’You are from Thuluiya. You are a dog. Go and ask Saddam for the money,’ " he recalled. "A few months ago, they would never have treated me like that. They wouldn’t dare."
What can I say? Payback’s a . . . oh, you know . . .
Quoth the Instapundit:
There’s nothing wrong with looking into why anti-American forces feel this way, though there’s also not much news here -- former swaggering thugs resent loss of status! -- really.

But I agree with Captain Ed that the absence of any attention to the moral component here makes this Post story by Daniel Williams a bit iffy.

Posted by: Mike 2004-01-13
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=24267