According to the senior military correspondent for Knight Ridder, there's a "big difference" between Iraq and Vietnam. Joseph Galloway repeats the Bush-corporate media claim that the new insurgents were a tiny priveleged class under Hussein's brutal regime, and are risking their lives to hold onto their "BMW's, mansions and other perks". Since they are hated by both the long oppressed Kurds in the north, and Shiites in the south, they are forced to "swim like fish" in a little pond known as the Sunni Triangle.

Yet the wishful picture of the opposition, as a small group of terrorists without popular support, is becoming increasingly outdated as the days wear on.

For starters, the city of Mosul, far to the north of the Sunni Triangle, has been ground zero for the most damaging news lately. Today a couple US soldiers had there throats slit, according to witnesses. A week ago two US blackhawk helicopters were downed in the city, killing a total of 17 soldiers. To be fair, Mosul is a predominantly Sunni Arab town, but insurgency attacks are now being reported in the mostly Kurdish city of Kirkuk against US puppets, and against US allies in the south.

More glaringly, in Falluja, a city that has come to symbolize the resistance, observers point out that the armed insurgency began after April 28. On that day 13 people were killed and 75 were wounded when peaceful protesters, demanding that the army stop using a school as their military base, were sprayed with bullets by US soldiers. Before that day the town was unknown to most of the outside world. The Guardian introduced readers to Falluja in their article on the tragedy by saying, " US troops opened fire on a group of Iraqi demonstrators near Baghdad yesterday". The article's title reads US troops 'kill 13 Iraqi protesters'". Indeed, if you do a search for the word "Falluja" on the Guardian's lengthy Timeline: Iraq", you find no mention of the city before April 28, 2003.

One might expect that shooting protesters, home invasions, disappearing large numbers of men without charges, killing suspects without trial, "collective punishment" and other terrorist acts (see articles below), would have a certain effect. A recent survey by an independent Iraqi research group corroborates the latest CIA report to be leaked. Both surveys conclude that the US is quickly losing the hearts and minds of the locals. Overall, the report shows that 43% thought of the US military as liberators in May, but less than 15% used that term to describe them in the late September and early October poll. The one Shiite city they surveyed showed the most dramatic drop in support. In May 53% of respondents in Najaf thought of the new authorities as liberators. Now just 5% do. The city was the site of a major bomb attack that killed a Shi'a cleric on the Iraqi Governing Council this Summer.

As any student of non-traditional warfare will tell you, guerrillas depend on popular support for recruits, places to hide, and neighbors to not report them. In there most favorable condition, they are the fish that swim in the sea of the people".

Clearly the occupation authority is doing something to turn their pond into a sea of hatred towards the US. Would anyone like to explain how this war is making us safer?