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| Iraq |
| Zarqawi's Taliban-style militia waging a war on Baghdad's middle class |
| 2006-06-05 |
| Noor and her boyfriend used to go out a lot and listen to dance in their favourite restaurant in Baghdad. The 26-year-old university lecturer also used to enjoy going window shopping at night in the city's once-glitzy Mansour district, dressed in the latest fashions. That was before the "men in black", the Taliban-style militias waging terror against the urban middle class, arrived in Noor's neighbourhood, threatening to shoot, kidnap and shave the heads of anyone who challenged their draconian strictures. The militias are part of a hardline religious crackdown organised by Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. On Friday he released a four-hour sermon, effectively a message of hate, calling on Sunni Muslims to confront adherents of the rival Shi'ite branch of Islam. Zarqawi, who appears to act with impunity in Iraq despite a £13m bounty on his head, has printed pamphlets that were delivered through doors in the Amariya district of Baghdad, one of his self-declared Sunni "emirates". |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #21 You are so full of it, zenster. Your Iranian friend? Boy howdy, he must be a real winner to be friends with someone who wishes to exterminate him and his entire family. Quite honestly, I think you are a troll who thinks its fun to come in here and brind down rantburg with your calls for genocide. F off. |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-06-05 23:42 |
| #20 We've read here about the militias in some neighborhoods, keeping out the bad guys. And in another story recently, how the neighbors of one Muslim faction (Sunni? Shia?) protected the one man who was of the other faction from black-clad demanders of his head. It isn't all bad or all chaos, and they aren't all hopeless. It took Germany and Japan at least five years to settle down after they were defeated, and they'd only been under totalitarian, fascist rule for about a decade. The Iraqis have had a full generation of this, and no tradition of self-governance; give them a little time to figure it out. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-06-05 22:35 |
| #19 Moose they are not striking back or even defending themselves. That is the problem. If they won't why should we do it for them. This is a mess but it was a mess before we ever arrived. Kill Saddam in his cell and level any place that offers resistance of any kind. Force these idiots to submit to us or die. It's all they understand. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2006-06-05 18:35 |
| #18 This kind of extortion works until the locals discover one simple solution. The instant anybody tries to strongarm you, attack them with a knife. The first guy who does it faces retaliation. But when it happens the second time, a second cutting, the extortionists clear out of that neighborhood. The idea is to create uncertainty, so that the bad guyz will never know if they can get away with it, or if they're gonna get sliced. They hate that. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-06-05 18:26 |
| #17 I wonder too, wxjames. Fer Chrissakes, falafel? If anything, falafel was being eaten in the time of Mohammed. What do these morons propose to do, pull the rebar out of every building in town? Take the headlights out of all cars? Revert to mud-brick architecture? This is why I talk about Global Cultural Genocide™. My Iranian friend estimated, and I agree with him, that easily HALF the world's population would perish under global shariah law. Unless Islam relenquishes its lust for global dominance, exterminating all Muslims may well prove a small price in order to save the lives of half this world's people. Can anyone tell that I am fed up to here with radical Islam's daily 9-11 death toll? Yup, every day Islamists abet yet another 3,000 deaths through their diversion of such immense wealth and manpower to combat terrorism that would be better spent fighting famine, disease, natural disasters and illiteracy. The sooner these modern-day Nazis are all dead, the better. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-06-05 15:58 |
| #16 We can't stop the terrorism until we cut off the money source. That means taking out Riyadh and Tehran/Qom. Until we do that, we're fighting the tentacles rather than the head of the octopus. Nuke Riyadh, Tehran, and Qom, and the amount of trouble will drastically decrease. Of course, every muslim with even a bit of radicalization will rise up in arms. When they do, whack 'em, regardless of who they are or where they live. Time to put an end to this whole mess once and for all. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2006-06-05 15:46 |
| #15 Zenster, I've been wondering about that, and how much bloodshed does it take for India or Thailand to lash out against the religion of pieces. It's like a domestic dispute, authorities choose to leave it alone. Not my ox. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-06-05 15:19 |
| #14 Methinks the Iraqi public will soon learn to begin killing-on-sight any man dressed all in black. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-06-05 14:58 |
| #13 I don't get any sense that the pressure cooker is even simmering, let alone being anywhere near to exploding. Even those nice secular-looking Iraqis in the government who wear Western-style suits wanted Islam as a part of their constitution. Well, they got it. |
| Posted by: Kratos 2006-06-05 12:58 |
| #12 I don't see peace happening in Iraq until a civil war settles the score. Pull our troops into the background, and let the pressure cooker explode. |
| Posted by: Graiter Claling1714 2006-06-05 11:47 |
| #11 It's an accounting problem. Solution ? Decimate, decimate, decimate. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-06-05 11:40 |
| #10 Zarq makes a much more compelling case: either align with me or die. He has much of the mainstream press and the Iraqis intimidated and in fear. Meanwhile, we sit back and take potshots at our own military. The answer is obvious: find/kill Zarq and take Tater out for good measure. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2006-06-05 10:21 |
| #9 ABSOLUTELY RIGHT Rob. If the people of Iraq do not rise up themselves and put an end to the insurgents and stabilize their own country, they are undeserving of freedom. One cannot be given character...it must be there already. |
| Posted by: mcsegeek1 2006-06-05 10:02 |
| #8 I was unaware there was an attempt. Sure, they were told to elect their own leaders -- but did anyone expect them to elect anyone but more of the same? We removed the tyrant from a Middle Eastern nation. Now it's up to the people of that nation to grow out of tyranny. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2006-06-05 09:49 |
| #7 Iraq is the trial run to see if the Arab nations (and Muslim nations in general) can move into the modern world. "Palestine" wasn't enough for you? |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-06-05 09:39 |
| #6 Like I've said before, Iraq is the trial run to see if the Arab nations (and Muslim nations in general) can move into the modern world. It looks like they're trying, at least some of them, but it's not clear if it's enough. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2006-06-05 09:29 |
| #5 Zarqawi is moving freely and so do his killers. No one is turning him in. The old islamic and tribal ways stop that from happening. He can kill a 1000 fellow muslims and they till not raise a finger against him or turn him in. If we kill one he are murdering crusaders. We are spinning our wheels here. They are going to pcontinue to play their islamic and tribalist gamess. Either we smash them or we leave. They have jacked about long enough. They have had since January to get their act together and haven't. Their is no central government to be loyal to so they aren't. Trouble in river city folks. The islamicists are taking over. Suni or Shia the radical islamicists are calling the shots. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2006-06-05 07:54 |
| #4 You can't fight ruthlessness with "sweetness and light". Turn the entire iraqi army into one big Wolf's Head Brigade and let them eat these guys for lunch. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2006-06-05 07:36 |
| #3 The seeds of their defeat are in their own barbarism. The lost in Algeria and they can be beaten in Iraq. Another Tall Afar type operation is imminent in Baghdad, hopefully with the Iraqi army taking the lead. |
| Posted by: Apostate 2006-06-05 07:12 |
| #2 #1, Sock Puppet of Doom you said exactly what I ever wanted to say. Thank you. Keep on saying what really matters. |
| Posted by: Annon 2006-06-05 02:09 |
| #1 Just nuke this hell hole called the middle east. The women will be beter off dead. I read this and my blood boils, islam and tribalism just are not compatable with life in this century. islam and tribalism are not compatable with truly happy women and children. We are wasting out time since the Iraqi's will not stand up against these thugs. Like good little muslims they lay there and take it because other muslims and tribe members say it must be this way or allah will be mad or it goes against the koran. We are wasting out blood and treasure I fear. We can replace the treasure but not the blood. Cook this fecal hole and be done with it. Start with Pakistan and don't stop until you hit the Strait of Gibraltar. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2006-06-05 01:52 |