Attacks on coalition soldiers and Iraqi citizens elicited criticism from some Arab journalists.
One such critic is Mustafa Al-Qara Daghi, an Iraqi citizen of Kurdish origin, who publishes a column in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa and on the liberal website Elaph.com. [1] The following are excerpts from his September 27, 2003 article which was published on the website:
'Arab Intellectuals Who Support the Filthy Terrorist Operations in Iraq Do Not Want its Independence'
"Each day, the press and satellite television channels, bring us the tidings… of criminal terrorist acts… which some of our hallucinating [Arab] intellectualslike to call 'resistance aspiring for Iraq's independence'… Do these intellectuals ask themselves who the elements are that make up the 'resistance to the occupation'? What are their true motives and what is their political platform once the occupation ends…? It seems that the answers to these questions are that those intellectuals don't have a clue. What is important to some of our sick elites and Arab intellectuals is that there is someone who is resisting the U.S. and colonialism, and is ready to die… But how, for what, and at whose expense? Such questions are trivial and are not discussed by our noble intellectuals!
"Those who carry out such filthy operations do not want Iraq's independence… [They want] to return Iraq to the abhorred despotism era, and [they want] to control Iraq and the Iraqis again with iron and fire. Otherwise, what is preventing them from disclosing their political platform? Since the ugly truth is different [than what they portray it to be], we see them implementing their operations in a perfidious manner using methods of savage murderers. They appear on TV screens masked and covered from head to toe… because they are afraid that if their wretched truth is uncovered they will be duly punished and will be swept into history's garbage can…"
'The Arab Street that Supports the Resistance Suffers from an Inferiority Complex'
"What kind of national resistance blows up UN headquarters, water and oil pipelines, power stations, printing houses and buses and disgraces itself by murdering the best in its country, the likes of Muhammad Baqir Al-Hakim, Aqila Al-Hashimi, and the nation's devoted friends like… Sergio de Mello? What kind of noble resistance is one that targets the national police force… which gives the Iraqis the feeling that its members [are there] to serve the people and to defend them [and not]… to be the whip that controls them.
"Any decent observer… can conclude… that the armed resistance option… is not the popular choice of a large segment of the Iraqi people… Surveys, done almost daily, of public opinion [confirm] that there is a growing mass within the silent majority in Iraq… that wants the Coalition force's presence in Iraq to continue, until security and stability are achieved, and until the country takes its first strides towards democracy…
"The option [of armed resistance] is adopted and marketed by Arab nationalists who infiltrate into the country, by leftist socialists, and by all the media writers who sold out to Saddam, such as Abd Al-Bari 'Dollar' [2] who, a few days ago, published… a manifest promising to continue the resistance and expand it… In their miserable columns… these bookish mercenaries have been trying to plant this rotted option in the minds of Arabs and Iraqis. They succeeded in deceiving the Arab street, which suffers from [an] inferiority complex vis-à-vis the U.S., the same street that hailed the destruction of the Twin Towers, [and rejoiced] a few days ago when several American diplomats serving in Tel-Aviv were murdered. Those bookish mercenaries were able to convince a large segment of the Arab street that the option [of armed resistance] is appropriate and inevitable, which explains the influx of filthy herds and mercenaries into Iraq to resist the American occupation… or to die the death of martyrs, as they imagine…"
'Who are the Panderers to the Iraqi Resistance?'
"The mercenaries nicknamed 'Arab volunteers' came to Iraq to fight the Americans and the Iraqi people as one, and to defend their leader Saddam, 'the hero of the Arab nation and the defender of the Eastern Gates.' What drives them towards such death are the abhorred Arab dreams that the panderers to Arab and Islamic resistance… such as Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rantisi, Ma'an Bashour, Abd Al-Halim Qindeel and others have been brainwashing them with… Those panderers, who were among the invited guests of Saddam's regime, and who used to go on pilgrimages to Iraq under the pretext of solidarity with the Iraqi people, hailed the despot and profited financially.
"Before the start of the war, and [still] now, some of them established brokerage agencies to send volunteers [to Iraq]… [T]hey sent to Iraq many Arab youngsters for the commission [that they get] for each one of these uninformed heads, whom we see excitedly running amok trying to carry out the fervent Arab plan to destroy Iraq… This is the truth of the shameful situation in the Arab nation, where many of its sons have become mercenaries who kill their Iraqi brothers in cold blood and defend their executioners… The Iraqis consider them foreign mercenaries who came to destroy their country and to kill them. This is what most of the Iraqis are saying, when we see them chanting from the TV screens: 'Get the Arabs out of Iraq.'"
'The Iraqis Who Participate in These Terrorist Attacks Are Traitors to Their Country and People'
"A few days ago, Al-Qa'ida called the attack on the Baghdad Hotel 'operation no. 9'… meaning that the organization had carried out eight prior operations… The significance [of all this] is that there is no Iraqi opposition to the occupation and that most of Al-Qa'ida's attacks were carried out by the same hot-headed Arabs who came to Iraq uninvited and without the authority to act on behalf of the Iraqi people… If there are among them a few Iraqis, they are representing themselves and their sick and calcified minds… and in addition to being mercenaries they are traitors to their country and people…
"It is impossible not… to mention that those heroes emerged from the remnants of the [human] refuse and from the members of Saddam's repressive criminal institutions, whose hands are stained with their people's blood… with the mass-graves that fill up Iraqi cities… [Members] of these institutions - the personal body-guards, the emergency forces, the intelligence [services] and Saddam's Fedayeen – are still the enemies of the Iraqi people. They sold their souls to their former master… and chose him over their relatives. And instead of admitting their sins and asking the forgiveness of the Iraqi people for the afflictions that they brought over it, they are trying their hardest to mar the joy [of liberation], to hinder the progress of building a new and free Iraq and to murder anyone who had anything to do with this liberation, be it an Iraqi or a member of the Coalition forces…
"It is their only skill… [A skill] that Saddam Hussein spent millions [on] in order to teach it to them and to train them with it. [Additionally] he brainwashed others, filled their stomachs and stuffed their pockets with money that he stole from the poor Iraqis… These desert rats, the remnants of Saddam's refuse, who [publish] manifestos, make videotapes about themselves in their burrows, and [give] clandestine interviews to certain journalists – they are the ones who are responsible [for], plan, and carry out most of these terror acts… which harm Iraqis and Coalition soldiers.
"These debased individuals succeed in deceiving [others]… by growing beards and mumbling a few verses of Koran about Jihad and echo the worn out slogans of honor and glory that Saddam had marketed in order to remain in power…"
'The So-Called Heroic National Iraqi Resistance is a Mix of Mercenaries, Released Criminals, Islamists, Ba'athists, and Terrorists'
"It is no secret that a few days before the war, Saddam's regime released tens of thousands of criminals… They took an active part in the looting following the arrival of the Coalition forces in Baghdad. Today, these same people are the long arm of Saddam's ghost regime in the terror acts… they are ready to do anything for money. Everyday we hear about the arrest of individuals who were on their way to carry out sabotage… who had been paid large sums of money by the active remnants of Saddam's regime to blow up water pipes, oil terminals, power stations, and other infrastructure elements."
"This is the plain truth about what you [the Arab intellectuals] call the heroic national Iraqi resistance, which is in fact a mix of mercenaries, criminals, Islamists and the remnants of the barbaric dictatorship, who are linked together in a Satanic covenant of forces of darkness, racism, Fascism, and terrorism. Their purpose is to bring about the demise of Iraq, to deprive it of liberty… to undermine American plans to implement democracy in the region and to rid it of the dictatorships and chauvinism that control the fate of all its peoples."
'They Do Not Represent the Iraqi People'
"Do these people represent the aspirations of the Iraqi people and its yearning for freedom? Certainly not. All the [political] parties in Iraq have platforms that are visible to all… and they are all represented in the transitional administration, which chose in an educated manner to… carry out a dialogue with the Coalition forces, which [in turn] never claimed to have come to Iraq to occupy it… Even the national [Iraqi] forces, which are not represented in the transitional administration, never announced the adoption of armed resistance, because they don't want to drown the country once more in a blood bath. "It is not fair [for the Arabs] to ignore all the parties represented in the transitional [Iraqi] Governing Council… while considering such elements as 'Muhammad's Army,' 'The Jihad Legions,' 'The Death Squads,' 'The Young Muslims,' 'Islam's Martyrs,' mercenaries, criminals, and bearers of anonymous titles… as representatives of the Iraqi people…"
[1] "The Dirty Truth About the So-Called Iraqi Resistance to the Occupation," September, 27, 2003, www.elaph.com.
[2] Abd Al-Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based Arabic daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, was nicknamed Abd Al-Bari Dollar due to his ardent support of Saddam.
