U.S., U.N. May Face Many Enemies in IraqThose of us who opposed this war had this figured out from the start. Why it never occurred to the Bush regime is baffling even to the most simple of minds.
By MARK FRITZ
Associated Press Writer
A fired cop, an unpaid Iraqi soldier, a band of black marketeers whose dealings were disrupted by pesky police patrols. A terrorist cabal or two - or maybe 20 - with differing goals but similar tactics. A drunk with a grudge and a grenade.
The bombing of U.N. offices in Baghdad on Tuesday, which killed at least 23 people, appears on the surface to be a classic attack by what is often characterized as a monolithic resistance campaign against the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
But the array of assassins and their abundance of agendas go far beyond Washington's short suspect list of Islamic warriors and Saddam sympathizers, say aid workers, law-enforcement experts and ground-level military officials.
Sit down and listen. We went into a country which has spent decades convincing its citizenry that the United States is evil. Some of that citizenry didn't buy it. Those are our friends there. But so many more DID buy it - either by loyalty or downright fear of disagreeing with Saddam. With all those years of hammering that message under the threat of death, yes - we still have some very dangerous enemies in Iraq. Many, many, many more than what is in that deck of cards.
What gave us oppositionists a huge sigh of relief was that they didn't unleash those horrific weapons of mass destruction which Bush convinced us of on our troops as they made their way to Baghdad. It was our biggest fear going into the operation. In our next breath, we realized that if they ever did have a reason to use those weapons, this was it.
For those who still don't understand it, this is the crux of The Big Lie which was a blessing on one hand, but a sharp swath right through the heart of what little trust we had in our government on the other.
We were told they had those weapons. Not PLANS. Not MANUALS. Not BLUEPRINTS. Not TRUCKS. But nerve gas. Nukes. Small pox. And they were going to sell it to terrorists to use on us.
So if there are some pissed-off people in Iraq, we might do ourselves a favor to ask why. And ask for some outside help to get the damn thing fixed as soon as humanly - and humanely - possible,
