Why Iraqis fight to free their country

For the last four and a half years, the most powerful military in the world has been stalemated in Iraq. Somehow, without a base or funding in another country, without jungles or mountain ranges to hide in, a home-grown resistance has brought the Pentagon to its knees. How could this happen?

See “Meeting Resistance” and you’ll know how to answer that question.

Steve Connors and Sally Bingham started work on their film in August of 2003, just as the Iraqi resistance was beginning to pick up steam and be recognized in U.S. government and media reports.

Their technique, and the strength of the film, was to let the Iraqis taking part in the resistance tell the story. Naturally any directors will choose material and present it in a way they consider most effective. But in this film you are hardly aware of their presence.

The nine Iraqis and one youthful Syrian volunteer fighter who tell their stories over a period of 10 months are uninterrupted by the filmmakers. They represent different sectors of Iraqi society—teachers, soldiers, religious people, homemakers. One dynamic force unites them: the desire to drive out the U.S. occupiers.

Some were staunch opponents of Saddam Hussein, but even those who hated him hated even more seeing the foreign occupier vilify the former Iraqi leader. Their feelings of Iraqi nationalism—the nationalism of a country now oppressed by the U.S. occupiers—and of being Muslim motivated their struggle. Not all were religious when their resistance work started, but it was obvious that Islam provided an ideology that not only approved resistance but made it a condition of a righteous life.

One woman, the wife of a soldier, tells of the combination of fear and pride she feels as she delivers messages and weapons to the resistance fighters.

No known resistance member is shown clearly enough to be identified. The filmmakers also avoided covering battles as such, avoiding anything that would compromise their basic role, to let the Iraqis tell their stories. All the fighters are very human and very determined.

If this film is not distributed widely in commercial theaters, the anti-war movement here in the U.S. should make sure it is seen. Anti-war activists should see it to move their struggle up another level. Soldiers and National Guard members who are questioning the war should see exactly what they will be up against; many would undoubtedly decide that if they were Iraqi, they too would join the resistance.

Only those whose thinking is distorted by the arrogance of U.S. imperialist ideology could come away from “Meeting Resistance” and think that Washington can impose its will on the Iraqi people.