the latest attacks belie assurances of progress
it seems that blaming the unrest and latest, most horrendous attacks on foreigners or plainly, "terrorists from overeas" is persuading few observers. analysts believe that the visceral hatred for americans witnessed yesterday and still today suggests that fallujah remains as much a cauldron as it was last 09 april when american troops captured baghdad. and when was it that dubya pulled that stunt on the aircraft carrier?in the article linked above, the author notes that several iraqis interviewed yesterday, including middle-class professionals, merchants and former members of saddam's army, suggested that america may be facing a war in which the common bonds of iraqi nationalism and arab sensibility have transcended other differences, fostering a war of national resistance that could pose still greater challenges to the americans in the months, and perhaps years, ahead.
and i really can't read how americans are reacting to these prospects. it took much less for the country to lose interest in somalia back in 1993 and force withdrawal soon after seeing images of the two US helicopters guerrillas shot down over mogadishu, the wounding of seventy-three soldiers and the killing of eighteen others some of whose bodies were dragged through the streets.
today, top somali clan leader mohamed farrah aidid is dead. but warlords, chaos and fear still rule the african nation. the city of mogadishu remains a dangerous place where people struggle to survive daily living, disconnected from the outside world. [ref: mark bowden's black hawk down: a story of modern war at the philadelphia inquirer]
