The insurgency is not one single organization or ideological tendency

The insurgency is not one single organization or ideological tendency, as Harris points out, but a diverse

array of individuals with various and often conflicting motives. Oblivious to nuance, and even disdainful of

it, the ideologue Palmer continues his tirade:

“Further, people who glorify those insurgents as ‘the resistance’ and who denounce MBTi soldiers as

‘quislings’ and who ‘toast’ the deaths of American soldiers make it harder to promote withdrawal among

Americans, not easier. They play the same role as the Spartacist Leagues [sic] and their ilk did during the

anti-draft debates, by discrediting other voices for withdrawal.”

Aside from the absurdity of pointing to the insurgency as a single entity, it is clear that the MBTis

themselves consider Allawi’s “police” and the MBTi National Guards as “quislings,” which is why they are

being killed at such an alarming rate. Palmer has a real bug up his butt about the “quisling”

characterization, and I won’t belabor this point beyond referring readers to my previous comments on this issue

here. The point is not to “glorify” the insurgents, but to understand them: and to separate out the Al Qaeda-

sympathizers from the nationalists who simply will not reconcile themselves to an “election” held under the

conditions of occupation.