With continuing clashes between resistance fighters on the one hand and the Iraqi police and National Guard troops on the other, there have recently been repeated calls denouncing the resistance, portraying it as inimical to the people of Iraq.

Having access to a plethora of media platforms, the promoters of these views succeeded in widely publicizing them, claiming that there is nothing called Iraqi resistance and that who are described as resistance fighters are in fact terrorists who intend to destroy Iraqi people by targeting Iraqi forces mandated to maintain law and order. On the other hand, the resistance movement has no platform to air its views, except for a few Web sites managed with limited resources.

In a television broadcast on Alhurra TV channel on September 27, a member of the High Media Commission in Iraq, which was established by the US occupation authority to replace the Iraqi Ministry of Information, said that members of the police force are patriotic Iraqi citizens who have been carefully selected based on strict criteria, the most important of which was not having any links to Saddam Hussein or any terrorists. 

This statement is a deliberate oversimplification of reality; portraying resistance fighters as terrorists constitutes an insult to the spirit of patriotism, which motivates a people to resist the occupiers of its homeland. The spirit which has been existed since man was created.

Many Iraqis wonder, “What terrorists are they referring to?” If reference is made to groups that have links to Al-Qaeda, an important question comes to mind irrespective of one’s position toward these groups: Did these groups exist in Iraq prior to the US occupation, or did they emerge as a result of the occupation?

The undisputable answer is that Al-Qaeda did not enjoy any presence in Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s reign; in fact, its fighters entered Iraq after the occupation. 

Shielding the Occupiers

According to eyewitnesses, confrontations with resistance fighters occur because the Iraqi police and National Guard troops, who are supposedly Iraqi patriots, proceed in front of the US troops to form a protective shield and are used in all missions that could involve clashes as well as raids of places sacred not only to Iraqis but to all Muslims, such as mosques.  

These troops also routinely conduct joint patrols with US forces and return fire when attacked by resistance fighters. Who then is to blame—the Iraqi resistance for attacking the occupying forces or those who accompany these forces?

The fact that the occupation authority provides training to the Iraqi army and police forces and has complete control over their resources and ideological orientation training makes every individual within these forces viewed as being partisan to the US occupation, and it is difficult to convince resistance fighters that Iraqis who sign up with these forces are merely doing so to provide for their families, especially given the absence of channels for dialogue with the resistance, which is still underground and therefore not in a position to open these channels.

The Iraqi resistance includes a considerable number of soldiers and officers who were members of militia forces affiliated with Iraqi parties that supported the US-led war against Iraq or at least did not object to it. Members of those are ideal candidates for the new Iraqi forces.

The failure of many Iraqis—especially those who were officers in the army or police force during Saddam’s era—in meeting these criteria could result in strengthening the resistance, as many of those who are denied admission into the new police force would join the resistance when they realize that they have been rejected because their “patriotism” was being questioned.

The Badr Brigades of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) has been integrated into the police force and National Guard. The same applies to militias affiliated with political parties, such as the Kurdish Peshmerga. The presence of these troops in confrontation with Iraqi fighters who reject the occupation hook, line and sinker constitutes a time bomb that could go off at any time, casting Iraq into the turmoil of a civil war—a civil war which will ensue not only when a fight breaks out among Iraqi political parties or between the Sunnis and the Shiites but also when clashes between the Iraqi resistance and police become widespread.

It is not an overstatement to say that the US occupation is deliberately limiting job opportunities other than those with Iraqi police and army (the unemployment rate in Iraq has reached an unprecedented level; recent estimates suggest it at 70%). This could explain Iraqis’ eagerness to apply for these posts. Seeking employment to earn a living does not obscure the fact that Iraqi soldiers and policemen today form a shield that protects the occupiers, a shield that the Iraqi resistance cannot always evade in its efforts to reach its target.

Continuous confrontations between the Iraqi resistance on the one hand and Iraqi police and national guards on the other could cause deep-rooted hostility among Iraqis. A national Iraqi government should be established as soon as possible to comprise Iraqis in one national army that should work independently from the US occupation forces and seek the liberation of the country. Such an army would never be attacked by Iraqi fighters.