And when the soldier in the Mahdi Army looks into the eyes of his enemy, the American soldier, he also sees someone in his early 20s fighting for what he believes except the big difference is that the American soldier was lied to.
In the dining hall of the Republican Palace, where the soldiers eat, a painted image of the Twin Towers forms the background of a large mural. The emblems of the four military services are displayed around the towers and, to reinforce the link between Sept. 11 and Iraq, the mural includes the emblems of the New York police and fire departments. Below the towers are the words, "Thank God for the coalition forces and freedom fighters at home and abroad."
I suspect that if you polled American soldiers in Iraq, this is what they would say they were fighting for - to avenge Sept. 11 and defeat the terrorists who were responsible for it. The characterization of Iraq as a battleground in the "war against terror" has been repeated frequently by President George W. Bush - so often, in fact, that it has assumed a life and logic of its own.
Most of the soldiers who lift weights and eat breakfast in the shadow of Sept. 11 wouldn't question statements by Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney about pre-war links between Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Yet the Sept. 11 Commission, after a careful review, concluded last month that they could find no evidence to support those claims. But nobody has told the soldiers. #msg-3943729
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