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U.S. appears to be losing hearts of Iraqis 

BY MAUREEN FAN AND DREW BROWN 

Knight Ridder Newspapers 

11/13/03: ABU GHRAIB, IRAQ--On the same Sunday that Iraqi guerrillas shot down a Chinook helicopter, killing 16 U.S. soldiers, a less publicized battle was fought, and arguably lost, in the trash-strewn streets of the rough and tumble town of Abu Ghraib, 15 miles west of Baghdad. 

A bus was set afire by tracer rounds from an American machine gun after someone threw a hand grenade at a U.S. Humvee. An hour later, dozens of men and teenage boys gathered less than 100 yards away, many of them shouting angrily as they described what they said was indiscriminate fire from the Americans. 

Suddenly, an American armored Bradley Fighting Vehicle roared forward and smashed into the bus. The crowd scattered into a narrow alley full of market stalls. Then the Bradley ran over a truck, crushing one side beneath its tracks, and clattered away. 

"You see how they behave, and they call us terrorists?" shouted Khassan Naim, a 32-year-old shopkeeper. 

U.S. civilian and military officials have tried to blame the recent increase in anti-American attacks on foreign fighters and diehard loyalists of Saddam Hussein's former regime. But that overlooks what's increasingly clear in the so-called Sunni triangle north and west of Baghdad: The United States appears to be losing the battle for the hearts and minds of many Iraqis who haven't yet chosen a side. 

As a result, as a new secret CIA assessment from Iraq noted this week, many Iraqis who might have been counted on at least to remain neutral now believe the U.S.-led coalition can be defeated and are supporting the opposition. 

The CIA report warns that unless changes are undertaken immediately, the effort to rebuild the country as a democracy could collapse, with disastrous results. 

But prominent Iraqis say it's unclear whether any of the changes being discussed in Washington will make any difference. They say a series of blunders by the Americans going back to the closing days of the push to Baghdad may have made it impossible for the Americans to gain the trust of many in central Iraq. 

"If we lose the center, we lose, even if we win the north and the south," said a senior U.S. official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the administration's public line is more optimistic. 

"If people tell you that we support the Americans, they are lying," said Prince Rabia Mohammed al Habib, who claims the leadership of 140 Iraqi tribes. 

"The Americans have chosen their own people, without giving the Iraqis the chance to choose," al Habib said. "Now the people think that what has happened is exactly the same as Saddam Hussein; nothing has changed." 

Also, a tougher coalition military tack in the Sunni triangle, which Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. general in Iraq, announced plans for Tuesday, threatens to backfire in an area of Iraq where the Sunni population already thinks the coalition ignores their concerns. 

Some prominent Iraqis blame the Americans for a series of missteps that began the day that Baghdad fell April 9, including a reluctance to crack down hard on criminal elements and looters. 

"There were many mistakes," said Brig. Gen. Tawfik al Yassiri, a member of the Iraqi Reconstruction and Development Council and secretary-general of the Iraqi National Coalition, an exile group. 

Among the mistakes, al Yassiri said, was the decision not to imprison many members of the former regime, including members of Saddam's Baath Party and agents of the former dictator's intelligence services. That, al Yassiri said, "gave them a sense they could move freely." 

At the same time, disbanding the Baath Party, shutting down the army, eliminating other security agencies and dismantling the Ministries of Defense and Information put hundreds of thousands of men out of work and bolstered the ranks of the disenfranchised. Many have become ready recruits for the opposition, some U.S. officials acknowledge. 

The frustration has led to a resurgence of the Baath Party in many areas, not because locals are Saddam sympathizers, but because they long for the security and economic stability of the old regime.