that we are barbarians. There is some racism in that. They despise Islam and think it cannot reform itself or lead to reform. They think we are so ignorant we need a dictator. But look at what happened in Najaf when the US chased out al Sadr. The media said the people were angry, but they were only angry with al Sadr. They demonstrated against al Sadr and for the [interim] government. There was very little news on that.”
Despite the high tempo of terrorist bombings, Ali sees public satisfaction over the growing role of the Iraqi police and national guard, and he thinks it was right in 2003 to disband the old Iraqi army. Even now there is concern about infiltration by old Baathist elements who, for example, alert terrorists when recruits are lined up outside police stations and thereby vulnerable to attack. Ali also believes that some former Baathists work as interpreters for U.S. media and help to color their stories.
Ali wants to answer those who, like Warren Rodgers on CNN, refer to terrorists merely as “fighters” or “militants”. “That helps the terrorists,” he says.
One of the failures of the coalition after the direct warfare, Ali says, was not setting up a suitable replacement for Saddam’s state television right away. He admits that more Iraqis watch Al-Jazeera than any other TV channel, but he cites as reasons the technological edge and stylistic professionalism of the channel, plus its suspicious access to terrorists. He points hopefully to a new television channel, Al Fayha’a, which comes from the United Arab Emirates. The US-sponsored Al Hurra is “good, but not as attractively presented as Al Jazeera.”
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