"Bush Good, Saddam Bad"

BY JOHN R. GUARDIANO
Tuesday, August 19, 2003 12:01 a.m. EDT
AL HILLAH, Iraq--There's more to America than New York, Washington and Los Angeles. The same is true for Iraq; there's a vast country outside Baghdad and the "Sunni triangle" that's now the center of a guerrilla campaign. It's understandable that Western press reports are fixated on attacks that kill American soldiers. But that focus is obscuring what's actually happening in the rest of the country--and it misleads the public into thinking that Iraqis are growing angry and impatient with their liberators.

<snip>

"We are very glad that you are here and we hope you never leave," Zaid, a 31-year-old mechanical engineer, told me. "If you leave, then there will be more trouble. The Bath Party thugs will take over."

Zaid makes a decent living selling pirated American movies. He enjoys sophisticated dramas like "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Saving Private Ryan." But most Iraqis, he notes, prefer action-packed adventures starring Sylvester Stallone, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Mr. Van Damme especially is quite popular with Al Hillah children.)

This is not to say that everyone here likes America, nor that Al Hillah is problem-free. Iraq, after all, is still quite poor and suffering from the aftershocks of Baathist rule and economic isolation. One of the biggest problems is looters who steal oil from pipelines and parts from electrical generators to sell on the black market. The country needs more electrical power plants and a better police force.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110003883

So the Iraqis who don't want to kill us want us to stay there and pay them for 10 to 15 years. Great.

US soldiers? Did he get back to his four star hotel after two hours to unwind from his exertions? Does he have his return ticket handy to get back to stateside and write ponderous articles explaining the wisdom of the war in Iraq, a la Friedman?

I can't wait to see the transformation of an one day wonder into a
wise counselor by the morons at WSJ.To properly catalog the follies of our time we need a William Shirer, not these shills.

Please review DU's rules regarding posting of copyrighted material--a maximum of four paragraphs may be excerpted.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/forums/rules.html#copyright

Thanks,

Dirk - DU Moderator

This is true that there are many people in Iraq and much of the country of Iraq that is either friendly or neutral toward our presence there (at least until some Shia nutball stirs up the majority of the populace against us).

Unfortunately three of Iraq's four major cities are not included in either category: Baghdad, Mosul, and Basra are all fairly hostile and alienated by this point in time.

Lance Corporal Guardiano is pointing out the truth...at least part of it. Unfortunately for those conservatives who want to ignore "the Sunni Triangle" and the daily violence and unrest in Baghdad, Mosul, and Basra, you can't have your cake and eat it, too. Iraq is a whole country; parts of it love us and parts of it hate us.