From the BBC News blog:
Just occasionally you get to lift the lid on this restricted society — and talk to real people about why the uprisings against Saddam Hussein that coalition forces expected didn’t happen.
I had an opportunity to talk to some ordinary Iraqis who were out shopping. I asked one man if the Iraqi people thought of this as a war of liberation. He told me, “People in the west need to understand that if even if people here are anti-Saddam, that does not equal pro-American or British.” This man was not even a Baath party member, but he said, “I’m an Iraqi, and all I know is my country is being attacked. Why do you expect me to celebrate?” People here do not see it as a war against the regime, they see it as a war against Iraq.
This is pretty much what friends who can read the Arab papers have told me is the general view in that part of the world. Putting people like Jay Garner in power doesn’t help change that image.
