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Ronnie Raygun Ronnie Raygun is offline
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Old Mar 17th, 2003, 11:23 AM        Iraqis want to be freed....
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20030317-24999690.htm

Iraqi dissidents turn to sabotage
By Con Coughlin
LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH


LONDON — Open acts of defiance by opponents of Saddam Hussein's regime have intensified in the past week, with saboteurs carrying out attacks against Iraq's railway system and protesters openly calling for the overthrow of the Iraqi dictator.
The most blatant act of sabotage took place 20 miles south of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, where members of the Iraqi opposition blew up a stretch of track on the Mosul-Baghdad railway, causing the derailment of a train.
"Until recently such acts of open defiance were very rare and were dealt with harshly," a Foreign Office official commented yesterday. "But as Saddam concentrates his energies on trying to protect his regime from attack, Iraqi opposition groups are becoming more audacious in their attacks."
Before fleeing back to their base in Kurdistan, the saboteurs left piles of leaflets by the side of the track urging the Iraqi soldiers who were sent to investigate the explosion to join the "international alliance to liberate Iraq" from "Saddam the criminal." In a separate incident, a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at a train illegally transporting fuel from Baghdad to Syria.
The only area where Saddam can rely with confidence on the loyalty of his security forces is in the Ba'ath Party's heartland around Baghdad. In an attempt to reassert his authority, Saddam issued a directive last week ordering Iraqi officials not to give up their positions and flee the country.
To set an example, members of Saddam's security forces arrested a civil servant in the al-Hurriyya suburb of Baghdad on suspicion of preparing to leave the country. The official was tied to a pole in the street and passers-by were ordered to watch as his tongue was cut out and he was left to bleed to death.
Demonstrations are reported to have taken place in Kirkuk, where an estimated crowd of 20,000 marched on the Ba'ath Party's office demanding Saddam's overthrow. Three posters of the Iraqi leader were torn down, and a grenade was thrown at the government building. One senior Ba'ath official was reported killed.
There were unconfirmed reports that another demonstration by Iraqi Shi'ites in the holy city of Kerbala last weekend was violently suppressed after the intervention of militiamen loyal to Saddam.
The escalation in attacks by Iraqi opposition groups has been accompanied by widespread acts of anti-Saddam vandalism. Posters of the Iraqi president, which adorn every public building, are being openly defaced and vandalized throughout the country.
Until recently, anyone caught carrying out such acts would have received a death sentence. But the mounting acts of open defiance against Saddam's regime is indicative of the growing confidence being displayed by the main Iraqi opposition groups.
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KevinTheOmnivore KevinTheOmnivore is offline
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Old Mar 17th, 2003, 11:35 AM       
Correct me if I'm wrong, cuz I tend to break out in hives if I read the Washington Times, but I did read about this elsewhere....aren't those mostly doing this from the Kurdish north...? Not to dismiss the idea that Iraqis wouldn't want to be free from a lunatic like Hussein, but whether or not they want to die in said liberation may be another question....

BTW, what will/do the Kurds hope to get out of all this?? Think a Kurdistan is likely...?
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Ronnie Raygun Ronnie Raygun is offline
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Old Mar 17th, 2003, 11:38 AM       
I doubt it.

Wherever it's happening.....Iraqis are Iraqis. Kurds count too.
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Old Mar 17th, 2003, 11:45 AM       
Kurds are Iraqis because of where the british partition drew lines.

If what you meant was people are people, I have no quarell there.

I'm actually too heartsick to argue much over this. I don't even know what to post.

The show version of diplomacy, which has always boiled down to "agree to what we're going to do" is over, the troops are in place and we intend to use them with or without support which was always the game plan. A lot of people are going to die, a lot of people will lose loved ones and my tax money is going to help pay for it.

Believe me, I'm praying. But I'm not praying for 'swift victory'. I'm praying for divine intervention. Swift victory is like praying for "Please, God, just let the other guys die."
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KevinTheOmnivore KevinTheOmnivore is offline
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Old Mar 17th, 2003, 11:49 AM       
I humbly disagree, Max. This war is going to happen. Now 5 million could die over the course of several months, or barely 1,000 could die over the course of one month. As tragic as both are, I admitedly will choose the latter.
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mburbank mburbank is offline
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Old Mar 17th, 2003, 12:02 PM       
I agree no one can stop Bush now, and really no one ever could, though our spineless congress could have slowed him down a day or two. And yes, absolutely, less deaths are a favorable scenario.

But if the early stages of this are 'easy', if it costs us nothing, if the media is succsesfully leashed so that american viewers again believe war is a video game, I honestly don't think it ends there. I think the day we secure Iraq is the same day 'negotiations' on Iran begin.

Naldo can step up and asdk if I'm suggesting I would like to trade american lives for a future outcome, but that's facetious. I don't want anyone to die.

The fact that people will, that this is a fait accompli and that I'm left to cower before a bully and pray for a broken nose instead of a crushed ribcage only underscores the blind arrogance of W.'s power.

If I believed in an active God I would pray that W and Hussein and Chenney be transported to the front lines where they can see what 5their decisions amount to.
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Protoclown Protoclown is offline
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Old Mar 17th, 2003, 12:24 PM       
Wow, Ronnie! That's great news! The Iraqis want to be freed! They're resorting to sabotage! They're ready to fight for their freedom? Wow, I guess we won't be needing to go in there after all now, huh?
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Old Mar 17th, 2003, 02:51 PM       
Quote:
Originally Posted by KevinTheHerbivore
Correct me if I'm wrong, cuz I tend to
BTW, what will/do the Kurds hope to get out of all this?? Think a Kurdistan is likely...?
Apparently, the Kurds are in favor of U.S. intervention but fearful of troop support from the Turkish because, as Max noted, that area has been a point of contention between the Iraqis, Turks and separatist Kurds for quite a while. In response to this ambiguity, Mr. Powell gave the, I think, definitive response that they are going to try to maintain the integrity of the current Iraqi-Turkey border "as is". I guess we'll see.
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