Appreciating Resistance

The intensification of armed attacks against US occupation forces in Iraq is being applauded by the bulk of public opinion in Egypt, with news of the resistance seeming to provide an emotional counterpoint to the constant stream of tragic reports of Israeli atrocities committed against the Palestinians, somehow softening the public's increasing sense of humiliation and anger.

Bassem El-Kababgi, president of the Suez University student union, told Al- Ahram Weekly that, "my colleagues and I are very happy with the escalation of Iraqi resistance, but we feel the Iraqis should do even more to end the occupation. Americans, at any rate, will be ultimately forced out of Iraq."

Mohamed Ibrahim, a 23-year old medical student at Zagazig University, said he and his colleagues are equally "enthusiastic about the Iraqi resistance" and even wish they "could take part in it".

Why? Because, according to Ibrahim, "it's normal and perfectly legitimate for a nation to defend its land, honour and children.

"Suppose Americans had a despotic president, would they like another country to invade their land, destroy their houses, kill their children, and steal their resources in the name of liberation?" asked Ibrahim. "The whole world, including Americans themselves, have now uncovered US lies about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and US claims that it invaded Iraq to liberate its people. It's common knowledge that the US is after Iraqi oil – there's no argument about that. It's enough to know that American companies have won the lion's share of the reconstruction work in Iraq."

In Ibrahim's mind, there is a link between the US occupation of Iraq and Israeli colonial interests in the region. "It is very obvious that Israel, America's pampered child, has become more bold since the US occupation of Iraq, committing more bloody crimes against the Palestinians and threatening Syria and Lebanon," he said. "While I'm sure the Iraqi resistance will become stronger, I just hope other countries realise their turn is coming soon, and start acting as well."

According to prominent political commentator Gamil Mattar, director of the Cairo-based Arab Centre for Development and Futuristic Studies, "there is an unmistakable sense of gloating at the US," throughout the world. That sentiment tends to peak in the Arab world, where US popularity seems to have dropped to its lowest point since the US invasion of Iraq.

"It's not that people hate Americans: they hate US foreign policy that is blatantly biased towards Israel," Mattar said. "People now tend to perceive the US and Israel as two faces of the same coin. Killing an American soldier has become synonymous with killing an Israeli soldier to take revenge for the atrocities committed against the Palestinian people."

According to columnist Salama Ahmed Salama, "People in Egypt and the Arab world are very upset about the daily humiliations being suffered by the Iraqi people, the US violation of Iraqi sanctities, the increasing repression, the breaking into their homes, driving their women and children out, and the torturing of their prisoners." As a result, explained Salama, any news of an Iraqi attack on US occupying forces "is greeted with great satisfaction by the Arab world".

There is almost a consensus among analysts that the emergence of an Iraqi resistance is the normal outcome of the deteriorating conditions there. Reconstruction has been delayed, unemployment is rife and the Iraqi people's initial hopes for a better post- Saddam life have been dashed.

As a result, many analysts are certain that "the angry Iraqi people" are carrying out the attacks on US forces, rather than just "Ba'ath Party holdouts" or "foreign terrorist organisations", as the US claims.

Salama said that tight US security along Iraq's borders is additional proof that the resistance is "purely Iraqi".

But even if foreign fighters are lending a hand, there is almost a public consensus that resistance is the first step towards Iraq's independence. Mattar said Iraqi resistance might ultimately compound "Americans' fear of war," a psychological condition borne of the failed US campaign in Vietnam. Mattar told the Weekly that the US did its best to "break that fear in the public mind before it progressed with its colonial plans" but that Iraqi resistance -- albeit far less intense than the resistance US troops encountered in Vietnam -- was spoiling the plan.

"In both cases, the US is waging a military conflict in a far-off land. In both, the US did not expect public resistance to be so strong," Mattar said. "The US may indeed possess the most advanced intelligence techniques, but there is one thing that computers fail to calculate: the will of the people."

In any case, the US administration seems unlikely to change its course. In the wake of the deadly strike on the Chinook, a Bush spokesman said, "our will and resolve are unshakable." Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, "in a long, hard war we are going to have tragic days. But they are necessary. They are part of a war that is difficult and complicated."

According to Salama, "it would be very embarrassing for the US to pull out of Iraq in the short term." At the same time, he said, "there is no easy answer for the current US dilemma in Iraq. It will all depend on who loses patience first: US military forces or the Iraqi resistance."

Ibrahim Ahmed, who heads Ain Shams University's International Law Department, was more optimistic. Ahmed said that as long as the occupation persists, the resistance would increase. Sooner or later, US forces will have to withdraw before they get further bogged down in "the Iraqi quagmire".