Thread: Protest in Iraq, Death to Isreal and America!

Aug 4, 10:35 AM (ET)

By MURTADA FARAJ

(AP) Ripping an American flag, thousands of Iraqi Shiites gather in a mass demonstration against...
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Hundreds of thousands of Shiites chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" marched through the streets of Baghdad's biggest Shiite district Friday in a show of support for Hezbollah militants battling Israeli troops in Lebanon.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060804/D8J9LMVG0.html

No violence was reported during the rally in the Sadr City neighborhood. But at least 35 people were killed elsewhere in Iraq, many of them in a car bombing and gunbattle in the northern city of Mosul.

The demonstration was the biggest in the Middle East in support of Hezbollah since the Israeli army launched an offensive July 12 after a guerrilla raid on northern Israel. The protest was organized by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose political movement built around the Mahdi Army militia has been modeled after Hezbollah.

Al-Sadr summoned followers from throughout the Shiite heartland of southern Iraq to converge on Baghdad for the rally but he did not attend.


(AP) An Iraqi boy burns an Israeli flag with thousands of Iraqi Shiites gathered in a mass demonstration...
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Demonstrators, wearing white burial shrouds symbolizing their willingness to die for Hezbollah, waved the group's yellow banner and chanted slogans in support of its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, who has attained a cult status in the Arab world for his defiance of Israel.

"Allah, Allah, give victory to Hassan Nasrallah," the crowd chanted.

"Mahdi Army and Hezbollah are one. Let them confront us if they dare," the predominantly male crowd shouted, waving the flags of Hezbollah, Lebanon and Iraq.

Many walked with umbrellas in the searing afternoon sun. Volunteers sprayed them with water.

"I am wearing the shroud and I am ready to meet martyrdom," said Mohammed Khalaf, 35, owner of a clothes shop in the southern city of Amarah.


(AP) An Iraqi boy holds a portrait of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and Helzbollah's Sheik Hassan...
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Al-Sadr followers painted U.S. and Israeli flags on the main road leading to the rally site, and demonstrators stepped on them - a gesture of contempt in Iraq. Alongside the painted flags was written: "These are the terrorists."

Protesters set fire to American and Israeli flags, as well as effigies of President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, showing the men with Dracula teeth. "Saddam and Bush, Two Faces of One Coin" was scrawled on Bush's effigy.

Iraqi government television said the Defense Ministry had approved the demonstration, a sign of public anger over Israel's offensive and of al-Sadr's stature as a major player in Iraqi politics.

"I consider my participation in this rally a religious duty. I am proud to join this crowd and I am ready to die for the sake of Lebanon," said Khazim al-Ibadi, 40, a government employee from Hillah.

Although the rally was about Hezbollah, it was also a show of strength by al-Sadr. Many people worried the presence of so many Shiite demonstrators - most of them from the Mahdi Army - would add to sectarian tensions in the city, which has seen almost daily clashes between Shiite and Sunni extremists.


(AP) Carrying portraits of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah,...
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The sectarian violence escalated after the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra unleashed a wave of reprisal attacks on Sunnis nationwide.

On Thursday, Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, told a Senate committee in Washington that sectarian violence in Iraq "is probably as bad as I have seen it" and that if the spiral continued the country "could move toward civil war."

In the latest violence, at least 12 people were killed Friday when Iraqi security forces fought gunbattles with suspected insurgents in Mosul after a suicide car bomber attacked a police patrol, said the provincial police commander, Maj. Gen. Withiq al-Hamdani. He said that the bombing killed four policemen and that eight insurgents died in the subsequent gunbattle.

On Thursday evening, a suicide bomber drove into a soccer field in the town of Hatra near Mosul, setting off a blast that killed seven spectators and three policemen police Col. Abdul Karim Ahmed Khalaf said. Six civilians and nine policemen were injured, he said.

On Friday, three mortar shells hit a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, killing two people, wounding four and damaging some stores, police Lt. Bilal Ali Majid, said.

An engineer was shot dead and an unidentified body, showing signs of torture, was found in western Baghdad.

Separately, gunmen shot and killed four people and wounded eight from a Shiite family late Thursday in Dujail, 50 miles north of Baghdad, police Lt. Hussam al-Dujeili said.

The U.S. military said in a statement that coalition forces killed at least three "terrorists" during an air strike and multiple raids southeast of Baghdad on Thursday.

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Associated Press correspondents Vijay Joshi, Sameer N. Yacoub and Qais al-Bashir contributed to this report.


I am not and never have been for cutting and running in Iraq. These demonstrations however really make me feel good about pouring billions and billions of dollars into a country where lots of its citizens would like to see us DEAD! I have been really trying to hang in there on the war in Iraq, esp since I have a nephew in Ramidi, these kind of demonstrations though really cause me to lose all my expectations of their ever being a democratic government in Iraq.I also have a question for our government why in the hell did we leave this idiot,Muqtada al-Sadr, alive when we had the chance to take him out? He is a known murderer, and agitator, who is against any democratic form of government in Iraq. What were they thinking?

I saw part of the demonstration on TV and was shocked when they said death to America.

I too wonder if it's ever going to be possible to see democracy or peace over there.

The hatred towards Americans seems to run pretty deep. I know there's some that don't share that opinion but it worries me. So many are here in this country and now they don't want to make the ones here on visitor visas go back. How are we to know alot of them don't hate us as well? What's going to guarentee there's not some outbreak here? Or another 911 type incident.

I don't know why they haven't taken some of the people out when they had the chance either. But I don't know war strategy. It doesn't make sense to me and I don't want to see our men and women injured or killed for nothing.

What is wrong with the Shiites. Hello, how quickly they forget who saved you from Saddam and the Bathist that would just as soon see the Shiites in a pool of blood, than to walk on opposite sides of the street from them. What a bunch of ungrateful foolish people.

Dixie

One of the things about the Iraqui people that has stood out to me, for some time now, is that they are not a nation that will thrive under democracy.

I, too, have neice who is being deployed to Iraq next week. It's giving me many sleepless nights even though she's a supply clerk.

My feelings on this war have turned completely now. I can't understand why Bush didn't listen when Colin Powell told him "if you break it, you own it". We broke it (no matter what the good intentions were), and now we're living with the reprecussions of that. Someone once said that the "road to hell is paved with good intentions".

These are a people, I believe, who need a different kind of government (other than democracy). The long standing hatred between the various factions will never adjust to a republic.

It's like trying to "fix" the problem between the Hatfields and the McCoys. One won't rest till the other is dead. There is no logic to this hatred - it's visceral.

IMO, we stepped into the middle of a hornets nest and now it's really hitting us how much these people do hate us.

CheyenneWoman,

I can't understand why Bush didn't listen when Colin Powell told him "if you break it, you own it". We broke it (no matter what the good intentions were), and now we're living with the reprecussions of that. Someone once said that the "road to hell is paved with good intentions".

Because of Bush's arrogance or stupidity. I'm afraid we American's will pay the price for his actions. It's a sad thought knowing that people want to kill you because your an American.

These people have been fighting for over 1000 years, Iraq is a political basket case that will never unite. We need to pull out, let them kill each other like they have threw out history. These people have a 12th century mentality that we will never change. After we pull out, the Turks are going to stomp the Kurds in the North, no way Turkey will put up with Kurdish control of Iraqs northern oil fields.

I've come to the conclusion this was never about liberating the Iraqui people, it's been about the oil. Toppling Hussien's regime was just a way to get the oil.

Originally Posted by Reciprocity

These people have been fighting for over 1000 years, Iraq is a political basket case that will never unite. We need to pull out, let them kill each other like they have threw out history. These people have a 12th century mentality that we will never change. After we pull out, the Turks are going to stomp the Kurds in the North, no way Turkey will put up with Kurdish control of Iraqs northern oil fields.

I don't think they can have a different government, or even want one, I think they like fighting, I believe they have some sort of warped gene or thinking....so many years fighting and fighting, they need to fight now, they are so used to it.

It's just like the bunch I used to work with, they weren 't happy unless there was some kind of trouble going on, and if they didn't have something to complain about, they would actually make up stories to get people mad.

Let's spend some more money in Iraq. The deal was, that the oil revenue would pay for their reconstruction but I don't think that is happening.
The pictures of this demonstration made me want to bring all of our troops home today. Let them fight their own civil/religeous war.

Originally Posted by Reciprocity

These people have been fighting for over 1000 years, Iraq is a political basket case that will never unite. We need to pull out, let them kill each other like they have threw out history. These people have a 12th century mentality that we will never change. After we pull out, the Turks are going to stomp the Kurds in the North, no way Turkey will put up with Kurdish control of Iraqs northern oil fields.

Sad but true.