The fighters came to Fallujah last year with piles of cash, strange accents and a militant vision of Islam that was at once foreign and fearsome to residents emerging from nearly 30 years of Saddam Hussein's secular regime.
| "Step right in, effendi," the yokels said in unison. |
Yet out of custom and necessity, tribal locals offered their Arab guests sanctuary and were repaid with promises to help keep American forces out of the town.
"Yasss! We are much too fearsome for the hated infidel to come in and shoot up your city!
Look! Look at Mahmoud! See the size of his turban!
Look! Look at Ahmed! See the fearsome way he rolls his eys!
Look! Look at Mustafa! See the prickly texture of his enormous beard!
What infidel can stand against manly men like these? We pledge the honor of the al-Kaboomi clan to protect you and your city!"
"But... But the infidels have tanks! Big tanks..."
"Mahmoud! Shoot him!" |
This week, with U.S. troops battling their way through the Sunni Muslim stronghold, several Fallujah residents said it had been a grave mistake to trust the foreigners who turned their humble stand against foreign occupation into a sophisticated terror campaign. Once admired as comrades in an anti-American struggle, foreign fighters have become reviled as the reason U.S. missiles are flattening homes and turning Iraq's City of Mosques into a killing field.
"Ummm... That used to be my house."
"Yeah. That used to be my mosque."
"That used to be my house guest."
"Boy. Are you lucky!" |
Their promises of protection were unfulfilled, angry residents said, with immigrant rebels moving on to other outposts and leaving besieged locals to face a superpower alone.
| "Hi, there, Mr. Infidel. Nice tank you have there." |
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