Fascinating, Frustrating Story out of Iraq

BBC reporter Sean Langan has video and an extensive interview from months in Iraq, including, specifically the story of how, because of classically heavy-handed, Israeli-like tactics towards the disgruntled, the Bush Administration has managed to turn those disgruntled into a full-blown, widespread insurgency.

This is another thing that can be put back upon the DoD's major neo-cons, moreso than the soldiers IMO.

Particularly telling are some of these quotes:

BBC Four: Did support for the resistance seem to grow while you were in Iraq?

SL: I spent months at the beginning trying to get to the resistance, it was really quite difficult, but by the end it was on the streets. Some guy in Ramadi said to me, "Why are you looking underground? Me, the brother next to me, that guy over there - we're all terrorists if that's what you want to call us." I think it's a classic case of failing to tackle an insurgency. The Americans, with their heavy use of force, have helped turn something quite small into a popular uprising in some places.

Classic application of the methods that the freepers and Bush love so much...blowing shit up and kickin' ass...that will show 'em.

Yes, it shows them [from their perspective] that you hate their fuckin' guts and are murderers. It converts them from fence sitters into those who will listen to those saying you are imperialist agressors because the evidence on the ground supports it. You don't win hearts and minds through shelling and bombing houses, no matter how smart and targeted you say your bombs are.

BBC Four: One of the most fascinating aspects of the film, in light of what we know now, are the scenes outside Abu Ghraib prison.

SL: I think I filmed that in late January or February. That was two or three months before the story broke. When the woman who worked in Abu Ghraib as a translator told me that there was sexual and physical torture going on, even I didn't know how strongly I believed it. A lot of ex-prisoners wouldn't talk to their own family members about being raped or tortured but some had, so all the mothers knew about it. I don't know if it was seeping out through visiting time or with ex-prisoners but there was no surprise. In a way that's what's most shocking about it. It took us another three months and then the world was shocked, but the Iraqis already knew all about it. I don't think the story would have broken without a Western journalist, Seymour Hersh at The New Yorker, because they were too embarrassed to admit they'd been buggered or raped. When I was there they said they had no food or water but there were other things that they were too ashamed to talk about.

If the AMERICAN press, aside from a few intrepid reporters can get off their ass and actually report on this clusterfuck, Bush will be toast.

You cannot and should not be allowed to start wars for false reasons, screw up the war, and make the world a more goddamned terrible place and expect to keep your goddamn job, the hiring of which was dubious to begin with.

They must go.