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07/06/2004: Why you want to know the country....

US observers keep expressing puzzlement as to why the killing of hundreds or thousands of insurgents has not had an impact in repressing the guerrillas. They don't seem to get it that Iraqi clans still matter and that when they kill an Iraqi, they anger the man's brothers, uncles, and first and second cousins, some of whom step forward to take his place. In the US a lot of people don't even know their cousins and certainly would not sacrifice their lives to avenge one. Iraq is not like that. So, it isn't really even a matter of ideologies, necessarily. The US military has incurred enough clan feuds to keep the insurgencies going. And, of course, Iraqi and Arab nationalisms are powerful enough that people hate seeing Western troops in their country. The line between being angry about it and being angry enough to pick up a gun is a thin one.

Y'know, this is something I picked up in my leisure reading, like, y'know, before the fucking invasion!!!!! How come the numbnuts in the bAdministration still haven't learned?

Len on 07.06.04 @ 12:05 PM CST

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Replies: 2 comments

on Tuesday, July 6th, 2004 at 9:33 PM CST, bryan@dumka.com">Bryan said

They also miss the reality that some of these clans extend into Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.

They miss the fact that Iraq was a European construct after WWI and there is a reason that the Kurds live in the North, the Shi'ia in the South, and the Sunni in between.

They missed the whole point about dogs and Islam, and they are constantly, inadvertantly insulting people.

Oh, someone should tell them than "thumbs up" is not a friendly gesture in that part of the world.

on Tuesday, September 21st, 2004 at 1:17 PM CST, hydrocodone said

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