This really is an amazing article and one that you should read in its entirety, here at Times Online. The amazing part of Abu Abdullah's story is the full circle of his status in conflict with the U.S. - he was a major in Saddam Hussein's army, then a member of the Sunni insurgency fighting Americans, a brief member of al Qaeda and finally, he is now shoulder to shoulder with U.S. and Iraqi Army forces fighting against al Qaeda. Now, let's not get the idea that this guy is wearing stars and stripes underwear - he won't shed a tear once the Americans are out of Iraq and he simply hates the American "occupancy" but what I wanted to focus on this article is this: Abdullah's hatred of Americans was overshadowed by his disgust and anger towards al Qaeda.
Let's look at what he said about his exposure to al Qaeda:
The key here is this - we can't be lulled into thinking that Iraqis like Abdullah are converts to American patriotism. They are not. Abdullah was a Sunni army major in Saddam's army - he basically hates America from the history of Gulf War 1 and still regards the Americans as "occupiers." At the same time, you can see some outlandish claims from him in the article about his treatment in prison while captured by American troops. But we have to be realistic - this guy is one of those many across Iraq right now that are fighting the true enemy - al Qaeda in Iraq. He wants his country to step up and run their own country and so do we. So while we have enjoyed the alliance of the Awakenings across Iraq and fighters like Abdullah will help the U.S. achieve victory, make no bones about it that these guys want us out and they probably will never see us anything other than occupiers. A Shia from Basra may feel differently but that is the nature of Iraq - it's complicated. But in the meantime, it's telling of how al Qaeda was able to turn so many Iraqi insurgents against them in such a short time.
Let's look at what he said about his exposure to al Qaeda:
After another six months he was released, but his time in captivity left him even more embittered towards the US forces and he vowed to return to the resistance. “When I arrived back in Samarra I found that a lot of things had changed. My group had become part of al-Qaeda and was killing members of the Iraqi security forces and even civilians,” he said.
Most of the people he had fought with had fled to Syria, being replaced by hired guns who were working for an influx of new commanders, many of them foreign. Mr Abdullah said that other Arab countries and Iran were helping to fund the operations.
“I could not tolerate or accept how they were working, so in the end I fled to Syria. I felt quite disappointed with the way that the resistance had become.” After only a week Mr Abdullah returned to Iraq and took his family to Baghdad, where he used his car to work as a taxi driver. Leaving al-Qaeda meant that his life was in constant danger. Twice gunmen tried to shoot him and he was forced to move house four times.
The key here is this - we can't be lulled into thinking that Iraqis like Abdullah are converts to American patriotism. They are not. Abdullah was a Sunni army major in Saddam's army - he basically hates America from the history of Gulf War 1 and still regards the Americans as "occupiers." At the same time, you can see some outlandish claims from him in the article about his treatment in prison while captured by American troops. But we have to be realistic - this guy is one of those many across Iraq right now that are fighting the true enemy - al Qaeda in Iraq. He wants his country to step up and run their own country and so do we. So while we have enjoyed the alliance of the Awakenings across Iraq and fighters like Abdullah will help the U.S. achieve victory, make no bones about it that these guys want us out and they probably will never see us anything other than occupiers. A Shia from Basra may feel differently but that is the nature of Iraq - it's complicated. But in the meantime, it's telling of how al Qaeda was able to turn so many Iraqi insurgents against them in such a short time.
I fought for my land against the US. Now I fight alongside them
As a loyal officer under Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi major never imagined that one day he would become an insurgent, but when Iraq fell five years ago he was left bitter, jobless and desperate to drive the invading forces out.
“I saw my country collapse right in front of my eyes,” said Abu Abdullah, who has since orchestrated countless attacks against the US military, spent time in the notorious Abu Ghraib detention centre and briefly joined forces with al-Qaeda.
Recalling the invasion, he told The Times: “I felt as though my freedom was being snatched from me. It was one of the darkest moments of my life.” In many ways Mr Abdullah’s story is the story of the insurgency in Iraq, where the changing allegiances of Sunni Arab fighters has dictated the pace of a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 2003.
Appalled at the cruelty of attacks sponsored by al-Qaeda, Mr Abdullah switched sides recently and is cooperating, albeit reluctantly, with the US military as part of a grassroots security drive that has spread across Iraq.
Five years ago, as Major Abdullah, he was holed up in the Iraqi city of al-Kut, south of Baghdad, listening to the sound of American combat aircraft dropping bombs on buildings and the thunder of invading tanks. “When the infantry entered al-Kut most of my soldiers stopped fighting. They realised that the US Army was much more powerful than ours,” he said. “We pulled out and returned to Baghdad. All my soldiers vanished. It was over.”
“I started to feel that the Americans were better than the Iraqi Government at that moment. I still look at them as occupiers. My feelings towards them have not changed. But my main concern is to stop the Iraqi people’s suffering,” he said
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