Forgotten But Not Gone Update: Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri
Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri, Saddam’s successor, now claims the title, “leader of Resistance and Liberation, general secretary of the Socialist Baath Party.”
Al-Douri’s latest statement reiterates what the Iraqi resistance is fighting for: national self-determination. Despite a one-time alliance of convenience, he now regards the al-Qaeda agenda as a disastrous diversion. Bear in mind that al-Douri is referring to al-Qaeda in Iraq, the group founded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and not Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda. The Mahdi Army of Moqtada al-Sadr is depicted as well-meaning but incompetent.
Badger of Missing Links offers a better translation of some of al-Douri’s rhetoric:
O tyrannical aggressor: Our resistance is not official armies, arranged so that your official armies, superior in numbers and equipment, can mobilize against them, winning a victory today in this city and tomorrow in that one. They are not Al Qaeda which offered itself up to you on a silver platter so that you could slaughter them; and they are not the Mahdi Army, which pleased you, and in fact which encouraged you, with their backward (meaning “undeveloped” or primitive) way of doing things, to liquidate them militarily–with all my respect, esteem, pride and love for all those who fight against you upon the land of Iraq for the liberation of Iraq.
…Likewise I call on all of the jihad factions of all affiliations and all origins to unite and to aim first and foremost in their operations at the occupier, because he is the head of the snake. And then at the agents who blatantly represent the agent authority, and the symbols of the great betrayal. And not to fight against anyone but them, unless they fight against you. And not to get involved with sellouts and agents, or with the agencies of government, including the so-called army and the police, and the Awakenings and the administration, because all of these are with the people and with the heroic resistance. They have been compelled by need and by destitution to go over to these agencies. Fight the symbols (or the embodiments) of agency and betrayal, who have been involved in capital offenses with the occupation, and in the killing and expulsion of its people.
Note that al-Douri, like Moqtada al-Sadr, is urging a unified resistance that avoids fighting fellow Iraqis except in self-defense. It will be interesting to see if this commonality of purpose goes anywhere. The Sunni and Shiite fighters last allied against U.S. forces in 2004, before the Iraq civil war erupted. At this point, with 100,000 Sunni militiamen temporarily on the American payroll (aka the “Awakening”), al-Douri may not command more than a few thousand die-hards in Mosul, Baquba, Fallujah and a few other places.
Previous One Utah posts:
Remember This Guy? (January 11, 2007)
Forgotten But Not Gone (September 13, 2007)
Who Are We Fighting in Iraq? (January 18, 2008)
Iraq news updates:
AP: Iraq’s government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh: hope U.S. withdraws combat troops by 2010
Reuters: Obama meets with U.S. commanders in Iraq
CNN: Baghdad hit by deadly car bomb as Obama meets with Iraqi officials
Voices of Iraq: Iraqi parliamentary elections postponed to December 22
The New York Times: Iraq Prime Minister Maliki Specifically Endorsed Obama’s Withdrawal Plan
