“Buds of Democracy” in Iraq

Any guerrilla war has lulls, slowdowns, little coffee breaks that last a week, a month, sometimes years. It doesn’t mean the war’s over. The VC used to go home when it was time to harvest the rice crop; every time they did, the Saigon PR office would declare that the insurgency was beaten. Sadr and his boys are going to work us the way you work a can lid: back and forth, over and over, sheer metal fatigue. They’ve got a whole new crop of martyrs to worship, and all they have to do is wait for another policy mistake to outrage all their followers. One thing you can be sure of, if you’re an Iraqi Shiite: outrages are like buses, there’ll always be another one coming along. When it arrives, they’ll get on board, fight us again, lose again, win the propaganda battle again, and come back a little stronger, with more of the Shi’ite poor on their side. After a half dozen lost battles, they’ll be so strong we’ll be glad to catch the last chopper out of Najaf and let’em martyr each other, instead of paying hundreds of billions of my tax money to be their Santa-Claus bogeyman….Gary Brecher, War Nerd, 04 September 2004

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The bombings, the shootings and kidnappings go on daily in Iraq. But two years after US troops pulled down the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, there are signs of hope that Iraq is finally turning the corner. The number of US casualties, the scale of militant attacks and the amount of civilian blood spilt have been reduced sharply from the peak in January and February. The security situation is still bad, but it is less awful than it has been for the past year.

American and British commanders are careful to caution that this may be a lull, little different from those seen in February and June last year. Yet in the Green Zone, the fortified government enclave in Baghdad, coalition and Iraqi officials dare to hope that they are gaining the upper hand……Telegraph, 13/04/2005

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Iraq4a

Chanting “Death to America” and burning effigies of President Bush and Saddam Hussein, tens of thousands of Iraqis flooded central Baghdad on Saturday in what police called the largest anti-American protest since the fall of Baghdad, the capital, exactly two years ago.

The peaceful demonstration by angry young followers of Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr underscored the United States’ accomplishments and its failures since the end of the war.

The Paradise Revolution…..LENIN”S TOMB

Thanks to blogslut for the picture