...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Thursday, April 08, 2004
      ( 1:16 PM )
 
Unity in Iraq!

Hesiod reports that the Sunnis and the Shiites have joined together to create a common Islamic bond of brotherhood in Iraq. How is this possible? Could George Bush be the secret genious he always claimed to be? Nope, not quite:

THOUSANDS of Sunni and Shiite Muslims forced their
way through US military checkpoints Thursday to ferry
food and medical supplies to the besieged Sunni
bastion of Fallujah where US marines are trying to
crush insurgents.

Troops in armoured vehicles tried to stop the convoy
of cars and pedestrians from reaching the town located
50 kilometers west of Baghdad.

But US forces were overwhelmed as residents of
villages west of the capital came to the convoy's
assistance, hurling insults and stones at the
beleaguered troops.

[...]

Two US Humvees tried to stop the marchers but
were forced to drive off as residents joined the
marchers, shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greater).

[...]

The cross-community demonstration of support for
Fallujah had been organized by Baghdad clerics both
Sunni and Shiite amid reports that the death toll in
the town had reached 105 since late Tuesday.

The rare display of unity came after Shiite radicals
launched an uprising in cities across central and
southern Iraq, shattering a year of relative tolerance
of the US-led occupation from the country's majority
community.

Ignoring that the two rival factions that have hated each other for centuries now have a common enemy in our beleaguered troops stuck out there, this article obviously proves one thing: Bush is a uniter and not a divider!

UPDATE: This incident has me thinking of a chilly January morning in 1972 in Derry, Northern Ireland. Thousands of marchers came out to demonstrate for civil rights and an end to indiscriminate internment of Irish citizens by the British. They were peacefully marching along when the Brits up on the walls surrounding them opened fire. In the end, 13 people were killed and many others injured. It's known as Bloody Sunday. Before that day, the Brits were fighting "isolated gangs of rebels" (as Rumsfeld likes to characterize such groups of people who choose armed resistance against oppression and occupation), and after that day, the Provisional IRA saw more enlistment of volunteers than it ever had before, and much of the general population of Irish nationalists were behind them. There's a point that normal, everyday, "moderate" people will come to when they are being oppressed, that they finally decide there's nothing left to lose and they might as well fight their way back out. It seems like the Iraqis may have reached that point. I hope that US troops are not going to pay the price for actions of mercenaries that might have sparked this whole thing. On the other hand, it seems like a tinder box that would have eventually sparked anyway.

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