Two texts on what happened in Falluja. Jonathan Steele, in today's Guardian, in a piece entitled 'Driven by national pride':
So this week's retaliation comes as no surprise. The cycle of violence that US troops unleashed looks and feels increasingly like Palestinian rage in the face of excessive force by an occupying power.A report by Jeffrey Gettleman:
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Not many of Falluja's people are former Baathist loyalists, as the Americans say, nor have the Americans produced evidence of large numbers of foreign "jihadis". They are ordinary families, driven by nationalist pride, and increasingly by a desire to retaliate when their homes and neighbourhoods are violated and their relatives and friends killed.
FALLUJAH, Iraq - As the rage cooled in Fallujah yesterday and the burned and beaten bodies of four American civilians were wrapped in white cloth, many townspeople said they were torn between pride in the attack and shame over the mutilations.(Via Farm Accident Digest.) You wouldn't - I know - expect 'all men are creatures of God' from a Guardian journalist. But you can also no longer expect 'barbarity' - just 'retaliation' and 'cycle of violence'.Many said they supported the killing of four security consultants... because they were Americans and Americans are despised.
But some of those same people said they felt embarrassed when mobs tore the bodies apart afterward and dragged them through the streets, turning this town in the heart of the Sunni Triangle into a symbol not only of resistance but of barbarity.
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"This is a bad advertisement for everything we stand for," said Muhammad Khalifa, a spare parts trader who closed his shop during the disturbance in a sign of disgust. "We may hate Americans. We may hate them with all our hearts. But all men are creatures of God."