Iraq: July 8, 2004

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Terrorists have seized a Filipino worker and threaten to kill him by July 10th unless the fifty Filipino troops serving in Iraq are withdrawn. Other foreign workers have been seized as well. This strategy has not worked, but the Sunni Arab and al Qaeda gunmen are desperate to stop reconstruction and democracy. The Philippine government has forbidden any more civilians from going to Iraq, where 4,000 Filipino civilians work. Because of the security and corruption problems, there is a big demand for foreign workers in Iraq. The money to pay for most of these workers comes from reconstruction and coalition armed forces contracts, which are not controlled by the Iraqi government.  Meanwhile, the new government, losing patience with the Sunni Arabs that support armed opposition, is talking about increasing the military pressure on Sunnis. Fighting in Baghdad over the last few days has seen government forces fighting it out with Sunnis.  The government now has a set of martial law procedures, which allow a clamp down on specific areas for up to sixty days at a time. While the government likes to concentrate on the "foreign interference" angle, they also have to confront the fact that this is going to be a civil war with the Sunni Arab minority. These are the people who supported Saddam, and for centuries Sunnis have dominated politics in the area that is now Iraq. In addition to supporting Saddam, it was mostly Sunni Arabs that supplied the killers, torturers and thugs who kept the population terrorized, and Saddam in charge. While many Sunni Arabs want peace, many of those who served Saddam want a return to the good old days. 

 

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