"Seven Facts You Might Not Know About the Iraq War"

Artigo publicado no Antiwar.com. Um excerto:

"4. Most Iraqi Cities Have Active and Often Viable Local Governments "

"Neither the Iraqi government nor the American-led occupation has a significant presence in most parts of Iraq. This is well-publicized in the three Kurdish provinces, which are ruled by a stable Kurdish government without any outside presence; less so in Shia urban areas where various religio-political groups – notably the Sadrists, the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), Da'wa, and Fadhila – vie for local control, and then organize cities and towns around their own political and religious platforms. While there is often violent friction among these groups – particularly when the contest for control of an area is undecided – most cities and towns are largely peaceful as local governments and local populations struggle to provide city services without a viable national economy. "

"This situation also holds true in the Sunni areas, except when the occupation is actively trying to pacify them. When there is no fighting, local governments dominated by the religious and tribal leaders of the resistance establish the laws and maintain a kind of order, relying for law enforcement on guerrilla fighters and militia members. "

"All these governments – Kurdish, Shia, and Sunni – have shown themselves capable of maintaining (often fundamentalist) law and (often quite harsh) order, with little crime and little resistance from the local population. Though often severely limited by the lack of resources from a paralyzed national economy and a bankrupt national government, they do collect the garbage, direct traffic, suppress the local criminal element, and perform many of the other duties expected of local governments. "

"5. Outside Baghdad, Violence Arrives With the Occupation Army"

"The portrait of chaos across Iraq that our news generally offers us is a genuine half-truth. Certainly, Baghdad has been plunged into massive and worsening disarray as both the war against the Americans and the civil war have come to be concentrated there and as the terrifying process of ethnic cleansing has hit neighborhood after neighborhood, and is now beginning to seep into the environs of the capital. "

"However, outside Baghdad (with the exception of the northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul, where historic friction among Kurd, Sunni, and Turkmen has created a different version of sectarian violence), Iraqi cities tend to be reasonably ethnically homogeneous and to have at least quasi-stable governments. The real violence often only arrives when the occupation military makes its periodic sweeps aimed at recapturing cities where it has lost all authority and even presence. "

[A respeito de alguns textos que eu "republico" - como este - aplica-se a regra do "vendo-a como a comprei"; como é fácil de imaginar, eu não tenho nenhuma forma de confirmar a veracidade do que os autores dizem]