September 30, 2004

Not only is the U.S. training of Iraqi police and military going slowly but even those trained have little allegiance to Allawi or to America. This has been seen in battles in Najaf, in Fallujah, in Karbala and in Baghdad.

Somehow America has not yet grasped the fact that Iraq is a traditional society, not an American nuclear non-traditional society. In the traditional society of Iraq, family, tribes and friendships outweigh monetary or political gain. That is why America brought in the puppets to govern Iraq after their military victory, Chalabi, Allawi, Rubaii and others. They did this knowing that these puppets could be bought and manipulated for anything the puppeteers, Bush and company would require of them.

But, as for the Iraqis themselves, they do not want to shoot at their cousins or brothers, they are also sickened by the U.S. bombing of Fallujah where most Iraqis have pointed out that Zarqawi has not been,nor is he, in Fallujah.

The Iraqis are also upset that the U.S. is once again targeting Muqtada Al Sadr after they gave their word they would not do this; Allawi is a party to this along with Bush's dishonest military. Each day, the U.S. military justifies the Israeli style brutalization of people through bombings and rocket attacks by saying, "We are going after terrorists."
But the U.S. does this with no proof, just lying allegations.

Ultimately, those Iraqis trained by the U.S. military will turn on the illegal American occupiers and will not help them kill their own Iraqi people who may be their brothers, cousins or of their tribal or religious group (Sunni,Shi'a, Christian, etc.).

Thus, not only are matters moving very slowly, as is pointed out by the distinguished Tony Cordesman, but ultimately, this policy will fail because of the family, religious and cultural differences in Iraq and America. Ultimately, the Iraqis who are not of the puppet group brought in to be a kind of Vichy government, will not kill their own.

Just as a note of irony, Allawi and his puppet colleagues always go around with a U.S. or mercenary escort--they know better than to allow "trained Iraqis" to guard them; they fear they will be assassinated by the Iraqis. No doubt, this is a justified fear. The question is, how many more Americans and Iraqis must die before this folly is abandoned?

Sam Hamod is an expert on the Middle East, the only American born Muslim to be Director of The Islamic Center in Washington,DC and now President of the American Islamic Institute; he may be reached at shamod@cox.net


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