Touch and go for awhile

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Boston Globe, June 15, 2003

US support in Iraq fades after raids
How one Iraqi's lifelong love for America shattered

By Ellen Barry, Globe Staff, and Bryan Bender, Globe Correspondent, 6/15/2003

DULUIYAH, Iraq -- Njim Rais loved America. Growing up in this provincial
Iraqi city, he dreamed of seeing Niagara Falls, and was so enraptured by a
television program set in Florida that when his sister was born 10 years
ago, he insisted she be named Miami. He promoted America's virtues in
Duluiyah until people rolled their eyes.

Then, at 2 a.m. on Tuesday he had his first visit from an American: There
was a roar of Bradley fighting vehicles down his street, patrol boats on
the river, and four Apache helicopters circling in a throbbing net over his
house. He saw his mother try to gather Miami into her skirt while an
American soldier trained a weapon on them, and then he heard her scream as
if someone had died. Two of his brothers had been arrested.

Four days later, people in Duluiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, jeer
at Rais for promising them that America would bring jobs and food to the
city, he said. And Rais, for once, keeps silent.

''They say, `Congratulations. Your brothers were arrested,' '' said Rais, a
bespectacled, bookish 34-year-old. ''I am embarrassed. Until this, I had a
shining picture.''

Six weeks after President Bush declared the major fighting over, the
''shock and awe'' campaign that flushed Saddam Hussein's government from
power has settled into a protracted, guerrilla-style war against organized
units. This new phase dashes hopes of a speedy American withdrawal, and
could severely test the US military presence and Iraqi support for it,
according to senior American officials and military specialists.

''We are into insurgency, and we are going to have to do
counter-insurgency,'' said retired Army Colonel William Taylor, a professor
at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. ''It's going to be
touch and go for a while.''

full:
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/166/nation/US_support_in_Iraq_fades_after_raids+.shtml


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