Know Thine Enemy

Oct. 9, 2007— -- Four years into the Iraq War the American public still remains largely uninformed about who is fighting against the U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. In fact, the received wisdom from the military and political voices via the media is that the United States is caught between two sides in Iraq and trying to avert a civil war.

The implication, sometimes more clearly stated than others, is that if we withdraw there will be a bloodbath in Iraq, and the guilt and consequences will be on American heads. As we continue this fall to witness the political struggle over America's course in Iraq it is time some facts about who it is we are fighting are laid out for the American public in order to inform this ongoing debate.

The first dominant myth in America about the Iraqi conflict is that the people who attack us are somehow fringe elements of Iraqi society or foreigners, elements that can be cleared from neighborhoods. In fact only 21 percent of Iraqis support the presence of the U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq and 57 percent find it acceptable to attack them, according to a BBC/ABC poll released Sept. 10, 2007.

The reality is that even before President Bush declared the end of major combat operations May 1, 2003, individual Iraqis were pulling together into small-scale groups in order to oppose the presence of foreign troops on their soil. Over the coming months and years this collection of groups would variously be referred to as "dead-enders," "die-hard Ba'athists," "common criminals," "extremist elements" and "al Qaeda." The truth is they are and were just ordinary Iraqis for whom the fight was just beginning.

We spent 10 months on the ground in Baghdad interviewing Iraqis (and one Syrian) who are actively involved in the violence against the U.S. troops there in an effort to journalistically establish the answer to one question: Who is it we are fighting in Iraq?

The short answer to that question is: We are fighting groups of people who view their struggle in terms of resisting the occupation of their country. These individuals believe that if America was invaded and occupied Americans would do the same. They bring a combination of nationalist and religious motivations to the conflict, each experiencing a unique path through the emergence of the insurgency.