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Al Jazeera (English)
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Iraqi Civilian Deaths ... caused by Bush's unprovoked war

 

U.S. to face hostile ordinary Iraqis
(Douglas Jehl and David E. Sanger, New York Times, Sept. 17, 2003)
New intelligence assessments are warning that the United States' most formidable foe in Iraq in the months ahead may be the resentment of ordinary Iraqis increasingly hostile to the U.S. military occupation, Defense Department officials said on Tuesday. . . . That picture, shared with U.S. military commanders in Iraq, is very different from the public view currently being presented by senior Bush administration officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who once again on Tuesday listed only "dead-enders, foreign terrorists and criminal gangs" as opponents of the U.S. occupation. . . . they said it was a mistake for the administration to discount the role of ordinary Iraqis who have little in common with the groups Rumsfeld cited, but whose anger over the U.S. presence appears to be kindling some sympathy for those attacking U.S. forces. . . . Other U.S. government officials said some of the concerns had been prompted by recent polling in Iraq by the State Department's intelligence branch. . . . The findings, which remain classified, include significant levels of hostility to the U.S. presence. . . . The officials said indications of that hostility extended well beyond the Sunni heartland of Iraq, which has been the main setting for attacks on U.S. forces, to include the Shiite-dominated south, whose citizens have been more supportive of the U.S. military presence but have also protested loudly about raids and other U.S. actions. . . . As reasons for Iraqi hostility, the Defense officials cited not just disaffection over a lack of electricity and other essential services in the months since the war, but cultural factors that magnify anger about the foreign military presence. . . . "To a lot of Iraqis, we're no longer the guys who threw out Saddam, but the ones who are busting down doors and barging in on their wives and daughters," one Defense official said.

posted by Lorenzo 1:49 PM