Gross, You Have Absolutely No Comprehension of the Way the World Really Is

Gross, you seem to think that Iraqis, in general, hate the United States. I am sure you get that from a generalization of all Arabs into one group, believing since they are in the same ethnicity they have the same opinion (e.g. believing that Jordanians protesting the war are actually Iraqis!) and believing that Iraqis are actually in favor of Saddam Hussein. Let me tell you about the real world. The real world is run by ruthless dictators. These dictators control their citizens with fear, not with aid workers in blue hats. Saddam Hussein controls or should I say controlled his citizens with fear imposed by a paramilitary organization called the "Fedayeen Saddam." This group, founded in 1996 under the command of Uday Hussein (Saddam's eldest son in case you don't know), is most notorious for its beheading campaign from June 2000 through to May 2001. Women whose family members who were in prison as "opponents" of Saddam were most likely to be targeted. It was Fedayeen who were resisting the United States in Southern Iraq, in the Shi'ite (that's a branch of Islam in case you didn't know Andrew) town of Najaf. The reason why they were fighting so long is because they know that if the Coalition doesn't kill them, the Iraqi people probably will. If you don't believe that the Iraqi people are welcoming the coalition, please look this Reuters story about how the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa (edict in case you do not know) urging Muslims not to resist the coalition (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030403/wl_nm/iraq_fatwa_dc_6). I agree that the Iraqis don't like a foreign military in their country, but they hate Saddam Hussein even more.

I could easily make a case about Kofi Annan's conflicts of interests, how the United Nations makes billions of dollars overseeing off of the oil-for-food program, all the while allowing Saddam to ignore resolutions to keep the profit flowing, but I won't. I like arguing with you too much Andrew and I don't want to see you leave the forum.