From the Guardian
Unlimited (UK)
Dated Friday November 14
The power of a car, a bomb and a man willing to die
Ordinary Iraqis want to see the back of the Americans - but not yet
By Martin Woollacott
It is ironic that the United States and Britain, who would never have invaded Iraq had it not been for the superior technology which they trusted would limit their casualties to a tolerable level, now face a military and political crisis in that country precisely because of the primitive technology which those resisting them are employing. What the US army snootily calls "improvised explosive devices" have wrecked convoy after convoy. A few cheap shoulder-fired missiles have been enough to hamper helicopter use, the main means of rapid mobility possessed by the coalition forces. And the combination of an automobile, a bomb, and a man willing to die has proved devastating in attacks on the coalition's camps and outposts, military and civilian, and on the offices of international organisations.
For the attackers, it has been as "target-rich" an environment in its different way as any in which an American fighter-bomber was able to pick and choose during the few weeks of the war proper. Supply, movement, fixed positions and the commitment of allies and helpers - both Iraqi and international - have all been affected. Hence the urgency of the re-thinking that has been going on in Baghdad and Washington, and the evident search for new policies.
With all the lessons that have been learned about the power of the weapons of the weak, from Vietnam to the West Bank, all this might have been expected. Yet almost always in the past such weapons have been employed in the context of substantial support for resistance among the general population. The paradox of Iraq is that the occupiers face a militarily successful resistance which is not at all popular except in limited areas and among limited groups.
A further paradox is that this is a resistance without an identity and without a programme, without an announced plan for the nation and without objectives - except for the withdrawal of foreign forces. That, it may be said, is the cry of the occupier through the ages, always claiming the allegiance of the majority and always classifying those resisting as bandits or fanatics. But, while the evidence is admittedly largely anecdotal, the picture in Iraq does seem to be one in which a majority, while by no means pro-American, very definitely do not want those resisting them to prevail.
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