Who are they?

Came across an article today (courtesy The Agonist) that calls into question just why the Iraqi guerrilla fighters are attacking U.S. troops.

This caught my attention because the conventional wisdom here seems to be that the guerrilla fighters are Saddam loyalists, but this is the first time I've heard anyone actually talk with them. According to this interview, they're not loyal to Saddam, but are instead battling against what they see as U.S. occupation. Of course, there are a couple of problems with putting too much stock into this:

1. We have no way of knowing just how representative this particular group is of the resistance as a whole.
2. From a propaganda standpoint, it makes more sense to say that they are fighting the occupation for religious or nationalist reasons than to say they are fighting for Saddam. Even if he were behind some part of the resistance, I would think that they would play that down.

Not that any of this helps understand what's going on, other than to acknowledge that everyone is trying to put their own spin on the situation. I suppose it'll be years before anyone really knows what's happening...

Posted by Jason at July 22, 2003 08:47 AM