Reply #2: Hoping for the best, preparing for the worst. [View All]

[RoyGBiv]

There was a story in one of the papers a week or so ago about an Iraqi man who was cooperating with the US military, even to the point of openly saying he was glad that Hussein had been taken down. He said many of those he knew felt the same way.

But, one day while he was working at whatever job he'd been given, coalition troops came in looking for something, and while they were essentially tearing the place apart they, over his protests, tore down a portrait of a Muslim cleric. (It wasn't Sadr.) He was furious, not just because he, who had been helping, had been roughed up during this whole ordeal, but because shrines and depictions of religious leaders are very sacred to him and his people, and the coalition soldiers paid absolutely no respect to that. He said that if he'd had a gun, he would have killed the soldiers right there.

I mention this because of the context of this interview. He was giving it while holding an AK-47 and openly proclaiming he'd joined in the resistance to coalition occupation. This was during the beginning stages of the recent uprisings. Asked where he managed to get the gun, he said that pretty much everyone who could had hoped for the best when the coalition troops invaded, but that they'd prepared for the worst, hiding weapons in every place they could find to hide them.

When the uprising began, all many of those involved had to do was go their hiding place to retrieve their weapon. Think "Minute Men."

Sorry I don't have a link for this.