RFE/RL: Iraq: Blurred Line Between Terrorism And Honorable Resistance

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Iraq: Blurred Line Between Terrorism And Honorable Resistance

By Kathleen Rido

Community leaders in Iraq have been calling for months for a distinction to be made between two core groups that both call themselves "honorable resistance." The first group is the so-called nationalist forces -- former Ba'athists and other secular Sunni groups. The second group consists of a number of Sunni Islamist groups including Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi's Al-Qaeda-affiliated Tanzim Qa'idat Al-Jihad fi Bilad Al-Rafidayn; the Ansar Al-Sunnah Army, Muhammad's Army; and the Islamic Army in Iraq.
Iraqis are debating whether any "honorable resistance" exists in the country, as both Hussein loyalists and Islamists are responsible for the kidnapping, rapes, and killings that are carried out daily under the banner of "resistance." The fact that ordinary Iraqis have borne the brunt of the attacks has meant that much of the homegrown support for the resistance that previously existed has now dwindled.

The problem, many Iraqis say, is that the insurgency's goal is convoluted; none of the so-called resistance groups have ever offered up a clear ideology. The "honorable resistance" that includes "nationalist" Sunni Arab forces claims their goal is to drive multinational forces from Iraq. Al-Zarqawi and other hard-line Islamist groups claim the same goal, but add that their intention is to form an Islamic state in Iraq. The difficulty in separating these two strands comes in the fact that both are responsible for unbridled attacks against civilians. Moreover, al-Zarqawi justifies the targeting of civilians by defining his enemy as "anyone who cooperates with multinational forces or the transitional government," without offering any real differentiations to support his position.

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