Written by Fumo Verde
So who are these terrorists in Iraq and what is it that they hate about freedom and liberty that they would blow themselves up to fight against it? Meeting Resistance is a documentary that brings humanness to those who we are fighting in this global war on terror of which the front lines are now Iraq. Who are these Iraqis and why after being suppressed for so long by a brutal dictator will they not accept this liberty of which we have fought so hard for them to have. Directors Steve Connors and Molly Bingham do a fine job of finding out and present it to us in a unique style meant to show why people fight against what we as Americans think is best for them.
Connors and Bingham were in Baghdad a few months prior to the beginning of the war and stayed throughout the conflict and into the early beginnings of the occupation. After the fall of Saddam and the looting was over, they noticed the small-arms fire U.S. soldiers were taking every so often. With the bombing of Abu Hanifeh and the attack on the scared shrines of Imam’s Hussein and Abbas, they noticed those “every so often” attacks happening more and more. While some were calling it an insurgency and saying that it was Al Qaeda and Saddam loyalists that were at the root of all the troubles, Connor and Bingham wanted to find out for themselves. Through their contacts and with a lot of luck, they were able to interview twelve Iraqis who consider themselves to be part of a resistance.
It is interesting to hear what these people had to say. Some of the people were here for jihad: a young man from Syria, and a lieutenant from the Mojahed who believes that an attack on an Islamic nation is a direct attack on Islam itself. But most of this insurgency comes from local people, individuals who have lost loved ones and feel a sense of pride in their nation, and now that it has been invaded they feel they must kick the invader out. Most of these people hated Saddam, but they now hate the Americans. They see how when the Americans are attacked they just start spraying bullets in all directions killing whoever or whatever is in the path of those flying bullets. This is why IEDs became the weapon of choice. The resistance fighters know that to keep the community on their side, they have to try and keep the civilian tragedies at a low, or else their local support wanes. The question about who is killing the civilian population Connors and Bingham can only speculate that it must be politically motivated because the resistance cannot afford to lose the support of the civilian population.
We learn that money and weapons are coming in from outside sources, but we also come to understand the Iraqi people use their own money. These people are barely making it to survive yet they will take part of whatever they have earned for the day and give to the group they are fighting with. They want us out of their county and they will do whatever it takes to get us out. If we think that we will be in Iraq for a hundred years and all will be peaceful like it is in Korea, guess again. The Iraqi people, like people anywhere, will overcome hardships and religious riffs to unite and fight off an occupying force for as long as it takes. And though religion plays a big part in the lives of these Iraqis—for even fighting for your own country, a nationalist idea—is still a fight for Islam.
To this day the pentagon has confirmed that we have killed about one hundred thousand insurgents, and yet they keep coming and coming. This will be a generational war were the children we have today will be fighting the children of these resistance fighters tomorrow. It is our duty a citizens to know and understand the enemies we fight and Meeting Resistance is one step closer to understanding what we have truly gotten ourselves into.
