Iraqi resistance: dossier. posted by Richard Seymour

You don't have to be a genius like me to figure out that much of the pro-war Left is both purblind and racist . However, crucial misunderstanding about the nature and structure of the resistance to the US occupation in Iraq extends well beyond those quarters, so that even perfectly mammalian types are deceived.

For instance, the resistance are "terrorists" for many, and merely "murderous" for others, not even meriting the term 'insurgency' without scare quotes. Already, I can see some of you reaching for various epithets of your own. A lot of this is related to unconscious fantasy life, with Iraq perhaps reduced in many minds to an imaginary menagerie, a hothouse full of savage, exotic animals leaking blood indiscriminately.

I hesitate to describe this as a 'rational kernel', but the actions of some groups described as part of the resistance provides ample material for these cranial productions. However, with that rather obvious stipulation in mind, it is important to keep the facts at the forefront. One salient fact is as follows: the resistance against the occupation of Iraq is legitimate, and by and large it does not target civilians.

And this shouldn't be controversial but, of course, it is. It is necessary to displace the media distillation by noting a few facts that even the 'Orwellian Left' with their window-pane-literalism can't dispute.

Extremist groups like Tawhid wal Jihad, hitherto taken to represent the bulk of the resistance, or at least a substantial strand within it, account for a tiny fraction of resistance attacks , assuming you accept their inclusion in that category. In particular, the most attacks that could be attributed to TwJ as of November was 29 out of 3000, although the most that could be attributed with any certainty was six out of 3000.

Similarly, the image of the resistance being a tandem force, uniting "Saddam loyalists" and Islamist groups, is a fiction . Such a picture involves a 'command and control' structure that does not obtain. The resistance is largely decentralised, localised and acephalous. According to the CIA, the average resistance fighter is a nationalist offended by the presence of coalition troops, and will generally have had direct or indirect experience of violence and maltreatment at the hands of US troops. Local cells operate largely independently of one another, although there are tacit agreements and there is often improvised cooperation.

The resistance generally does not target civilians . The overwhelming bulk of attacks are directed at coalition troops, as this graphic drawn from statistics in a report by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies shows. Similarly, this graph from the New York Times shows exactly the same thing: however attacks have fluctuated in their frequency and intensity, the overwhelming bulk of them are always directed at coalition forces. (Note: these graphics are difficult to see on the web, so it is best to copy and paste onto a word document, then enlarge - they become quite clear then).

Facts are often no competition for the PR machine , and as the old Russian proverb has it, repetition is the mother of learning. So, by repeating again and again that one has killed Al Qaeda fighters 'on the border with Syria' or some such thing that reinforces received opinion, the image becomes almost impregnable.

There is no doubt that Iraq is in a violent, chaotic and frightening state , but this is in large part because there is a US policy of supporting and funding death squads which are intended to crush the resistance. Some groups are killing off Sunni scholars , and it can't be a surprise that some Sunnis are drawing the conclusion that this is part of a state policy, given the brutality even of the official CIA-trained Iraqi security forces. It is hard to resist the conclusion that the US is trying to steer the country into a bitter civil war, which would both provide a rationale for their staying, and undermine the unity of the resistance, which is already weak.