Iraqis now know al-Qaeda, not U.S., is the real enemy
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opin...ow_al-Qaeda__not_U_S___is_the_real_enemy.html
By Kevin Ferris
Inquirer Columnist
As I rewatched the movie Obsession - Radical Islam's War Against the West recently, a few things jumped out, including these quotes from various Arab media outlets:
"America is the foremost enemy of the Muslim nation . . ."
"They have come to fight the people of Iraq . . ."
"The Americans must understand that when they attack the holy places, they attack all the Muslims of the world."
The film also showed propaganda videos from Iran, which included shots of U.S. forces kicking in doors, missiles being launched, Arab children crying, Muslims running with their wounded. Interspersed throughout were images of a smiling President Bush.
None of this was particularly original. What stood out, though, was the realization that since this movie was released in 2006, the United States had actually increased troop levels in Iraq, had redoubled efforts to rout al-Qaeda there. If anything, Bush had given propagandists more fuel to inflame the anti-American Arab street.
The result?
Rather than our forces' driving Iraqis into the arms of the radicals, the reverse happened.
It seems Iraqis have decided that al-Qaeda, not America, is the "foremost enemy." That al-Qaeda, not America, had come to fight the people of Iraq. That al-Qaeda, not America, was the enemy of Muslims and their holy places.
Does this mean Iraqis want America encamped there forever? Of course not. Or that innocent life hasn't been lost as the result of U.S. actions? No.
But what irony. In the heart of the proposed capital of the radical Islamist caliphate, the antidote to jihadi propaganda has actually been exposure to the courage, decency and values of U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.
Over the last five years, Iraqis have had the chance to see both sides in action: terrorists, extremists and militias that slaughter civilians at every opportunity vs. Americans who go out of their way to protect innocents, to help provide basic services, to rebuild communities.
Looking at those two contrary models, many Iraqis have thrown in with the Americans. Their reward? Decreasing levels of violence, a virtual end to the civil war, a certain level of protection against homicidal radicals, and the chance to put their country and lives back together.
For details on how this transformation occurred, start with the book Moment of Truth in Iraq, by former Green Beret and longtime embedded military blogger Michael Yon.
Yon describes al-Qaeda in Iraq as a gang that recruits young people with a "notion of masculinity in which the cruelest, most destructive, and bullying are seen as the toughest and thus the most admired."
In contrast, he writes, "What the American soldier at his best brings to counterinsurgency - by culture, by training, by long and honored tradition - is a different model in which the strongest - and most to be feared - is the one who protects and serves, who makes the people safe by putting himself at risk."
Yon shows the revulsion of Iraqi soldiers for al-Qaeda as they pull bodies of innocents - including decapitated children - from shallow graves in a village liberated from terrorists. "Look at what al-Qaeda has done to my country," one officer says.
Even the hard-core anti-American insurgent group, the 1920s Revolution Brigades, now fights alongside U.S. forces. One of their leaders told Yon: "Al-Qaeda is an abomination of Islam: cutting off heads, stealing people's money, kidnapping, and every type of torture."
Yon offers several examples of the decency of U.S. forces that Iraqis have appreciated, including one by Maj. Mark Bieger, who appears on the book's cover.
Bieger's unit was tossing candy to children when a suicide bomber struck. As Yon says, the terrorist could have waited until the crowd cleared. He could have just targeted U.S. soldiers.
In the chaos that followed the blast, Bieger grabbed a wounded girl named Farah and rushed her to a vehicle for evacuation to a hospital. He hugged her several times, and Yon caught it on film.
Farah died, but, Yon says, "this picture, published all over Iraq and all over the world, had a devastating effect on the terrorists."
In his conclusion, Yon points out that the war is not yet won. But if victory is achieved, he says, it will be largely through the efforts of U.S. combat troops.
"This book covered a time in which our men and women in Iraq changed the course of history," he writes. "They did it against the odds, contrary to all expectations. . . . They have been fighting for two nations, one of which didn't seem to notice.
"The Iraqis noticed."
