Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=11/09/2003

TYPE=EDITORIAL

NUMBER=0-10972

TITLE=EDITORIAL: IRAQI SPEAKS OUT ON TERRORISTS

INTERNET=Yes

CONTENT=THIS EDITORIAL IS BEING RELEASED FOR USE BY ALL SERVICES.

Anncr: Next, an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government:

Voice: In Iraq, says President George W. Bush, two major elements are responsible for the terrorist attacks against the Iraqi people, international aid workers, and coalition forces:

(ACT :25 - DALET: POLICY/ACTUALITIES) "The Baathists try to create chaos and fear because they realize that a free Iraq will deny them the excessive privileges they had under Saddam Hussein. The foreign terrorists are trying to create conditions of fear and retreat because they fear a free and peaceful state in the midst of a part of the world where terror has found recruits; that freedom is exactly what terrorists fear the most." (END ACT)

Sad to say, the terrorists have found support in some intellectual quarters in Arab countries. Some commentators have even made the absurd claim that the terrorist attacks are legitimate resistance to the occupation of Iraq. One of the many Iraqis to refute this claim is Mustafa al-Qara Daghi, an Iraqi Kurd who writes a column in the Kuwaiti daily newspaper Al-Siyassa as well as on the Internet site, elaph.com.

As Mr. Daghi wrote recently on the Internet, "What kind of national resistance blows up [United Nations] headquarters, water and oil pipelines, power stations, printing houses, and buses and disgraces itself by murdering the best in its country, the likes of [Ayatollah] Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim [BAH-keer ahl-HAH-keem], [Iraqi Governing Council member] Aqila al-Hashimi, and the nation's devoted friends like. . .[U-N envoy] Sergio [Vieira] de Mello?"

"Those who carry out such filthy operations," said Mustafa al-Qara Daghi, "do not want Iraq's independence." Far from being a "heroic national Iraqi resistance," he said, they are "a mix of mercenaries, criminals, Islamists, and the remnants of the barbaric dictatorship, who are linked together. . .[by] racism, Fascism, and terrorism. Their purpose is to bring about the demise of Iraq, to deprive it of liberty."

That is why, said Iraqi Kurd Mustafa al-Qara Daghi, "there is a growing mass within the silent majority in Iraq. . .that wants the coalition force's presence in Iraq to continue, until security and stability are achieved, and until the country takes its first strides towards democracy."

Anncr: That was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government. If you have a comment, please write to Editorials, V-O-A, Washington, D-C, 20237, U-S-A. You may also comment at www-dot-voanews-dot-com-slash-editorials, or fax us at (202) 619-1043.