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| Iraq | |
| In Sunni Triangle, Loss of Privilege Breeds Bitterness | |
| 2004-01-13 | |
| By Daniel Williams, Washington Post Foreign Service. EFL Less than a year ago, Ismael Mohammed Juwara lived high in the food chain of President Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. He was a secret policeman feared and respected among his comrades and in his hometown, enjoying a cornucopia of privileges from the government. "I was a contendah!" Now, as he scrapes out a living by selling diesel fuel illegally, he is a pariah in the new Iraq. "We were on top of the system. We had dreams," said Juwara, a former member of the Mukhabarat, the intelligence service that reported directly to the now-deposed president. "Now we are the losers. We lost our positions, our status, the security of our families, stability. Curse the Americans. Curse them." Cue world’s smallest violin . . . Hundreds of thousands of men from this area, now known as the Sunni Triangle, joined Hussein’s extensive . . . and are not well-loved by the Iraqi people they used to prey upon, either. . . . People such as Juwara form the core of resistance to the occupation and the developing order, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials. Frequently referred to as Baathist remnants or dead-enders, they are resentful and unwilling to accept their lot quietly. For that, they make no apologies. "Was being a Baathist some sort of disease?" Juwara said, raising his voice suddenly. "Was serving the country some sort of crime?" . . . Uh, yeah, being a Baathist secret police goon was a crime. Besides his economic woes, Juwara expressed deep feelings of humiliation.
What can I say? Payback’s a . . . oh, you know . . . Quoth the Instapundit: There’s nothing wrong with looking into why anti-American forces feel this way, though there’s also not much news here -- former swaggering thugs resent loss of status! -- really. | |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #15 I'm with BAR, why is this fucker still alive? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-1-13 9:22:01 PM |
| #14 We should gather up these former members of the muck-it-up-bad and put them in a big room. Let in a couple of hundred of the family members of people whose children, parents, husbands, wives, etc., were tortured and killed by these bastards. Close your ears to the screaming, and just wait. When the room becomes quiet again, go in and clean up for the next one. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-1-13 9:04:58 PM |
| #13 You heartless bastards. I hope you never have to live in your own town when you've been instrumental in killing every 18th person, and suddenly you are on the streets. On the streets! Like an Infidel Bum! I won't give you a quarter or a nickel! Me and my friend Faisal will walk on by. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-1-13 6:25:53 PM |
| #12 I'm sure a turd like dan williams can make no distinction between a former mukhabaRAT thug and our special forces. In his shit-addled mind, the two are equivalent. Maybe he should ask for iraqi interrogation techniques from his lil' buddy. I'm sure the thug wouldn't mind showing him the myriad of uses of a car battery. Needless to say, the 'media' is lost in this country. |
| Posted by: 4thInfVet 2004-1-13 1:20:47 PM |
| #11 If Daniel Williams thinks that the henchman, Juwara, is sore about his loss of power, then he should report on how pissed off the head villian must be. Saddam, the poor tyrant, has his lost freedom to brutalize, torture, and murder at will. It's just too sad. Williams should have asked Ismael about the autracities commited by his vaunted regime. |
| Posted by: Gasse Katze 2004-1-13 1:20:45 PM |
| #10 They really should transfer Williams over to Italy to interview the SS men on trial. He can write another pity piece there, too. "Was being a Nazi some sort of disease?" Sommer said, raising his voice suddenly. "Was serving the Reich some sort of crime?" |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-1-13 1:17:29 PM |
| #9 The man had dreams, for crying out loud! Yes, but they involved feeding people into plastic shredders and someday being promoted to the rape squad. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-1-13 12:59:31 PM |
| #8 Yeah, he had dreams of moving up from operating the plastic shredder or running the kiddie jail. Maybe he could have become one of the guys who gave the order to shoot people in the back of the head so they could tumble into mass graves. And the Coalition took those dreams from him and the rest of his buddies in Thuluiya. THANK GOD! |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2004-1-13 12:58:06 PM |
| #7 "Was being a Baathist some sort of disease?" Juwara said, raising his voice suddenly. "Was serving the country some sort of crime?" . . . Nuremburg or Iraq? You decide. |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2004-1-13 12:44:14 PM |
| #6 C'mon, you guys! How can you be so heartless? The man had dreams, for crying out loud! Where's Amnesty International?! Where's Jesse Jackson?! Oh, the humanity! Cue the Islamic Nuns' Choir: Climb ev'ry mountain... |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-1-13 12:40:25 PM |
| #5 so sweet reading stuff like this,really makes me proud to be a member of the coalition that destroyed Saddam and his army of muppets.Great stuff this. |
| Posted by: Jon Shep U.K 2004-1-13 12:17:47 PM |
| #4 He's having as much trouble grasping reality as the left is. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2004-1-13 11:47:39 AM |
| #3 Curse the Americans. Curse them Be glad we aren't like you. If we were you would be dragged through the street and thrown off a three-story building. |
| Posted by: Charles 2004-1-13 10:32:55 AM |
| #2 Now, as he scrapes out a living by selling diesel fuel illegally, he is a pariah in the new Iraq. "We were on top of the system. We had dreams," said Juwara, a former member of the Mukhabarat, the intelligence service that reported directly to the now-deposed president. "Now we are the losers. We lost our positions, our status, the security of our families, stability. Curse the Americans. Curse them." Why is this son of a bitch still alive? |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-1-13 10:23:57 AM |
| #1 Daniel Williams should be repeatedly spat upon whenever he shows his face in public. His home's cable service should be replaced with a special connection that shows nothing but the videotapes recovered from Baathist torture cells. His car's radio should play nothing but the screams of the victims of the people he wants us to pity. Williams and the editor who approved this story, and everyone who was involved in publishing this piece of crap should be forced to spend the next five years helping to uncover and catalog the mass graves in Iraq. Maybe then they'll understand what the "humiliated" Baathists were up to. In any case, none of those responsible should ever be allowed to work in reporting ever again, and I'd be loathe to see them in even the most base job, given the complete lack of morality they've shown here. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-1-13 8:17:38 AM |