When is a truck bomber not a truck bomber?

Do you get a bad feeling when you see a Tesco lorry pulling up to make a delivery at your house? Do you get an over-riding sense of foreboding every time you overtake a truck on the M1 motorway? Does being in the same layby as a Heavy Goods Vehicle license holder make you nervous?

No?

That's probably because you think truckers are trying to make an honest living. Perhaps you've seen them driving with caution, stopping at pedestrian crossings. May be you even saw one making a delivery. You might even have come to the conclusion that they are no more or less law abiding than you or I.

But you'd be wrong. Because the newspaper reports from Iraq keep reminding us that Iraqi truckers are sectarian suicide bombers.

But does this ring true?

What does history tell us about truckers and sectarian violence?

Did Irish truckers, for example, take to blowing up their trailers during the sectarian troubles in Northern Ireland?

I don't think so.

Do you think Iraqi truckers are so different?

These people ARE indeed desperate - desperate for work, desperate for security, desperate for water and electricity - but surely not desperate to leave their families without a father.

"Call me", says the new boss. "Take this mobile phone. Ring me when you get there. God's speed".

And so the new recruit takes the phone, climbs in the cab and drives a ready-loaded truck away.

Little does he know the mobile phone is a remote control which will trigger high explosives loaded under or behind him.

And, due to the almost complete lack of independent reporting from Iraq, we'll never know who came up with the idea.

But, what of the facts as we know them?

We do know that James Steele is the US advisor on counterinsurgency in Iraq. His CV includes leading a special forces mission in El Salvador where he and others acted as trainers and advisors to the military junta. Over 10 years of civil war, the regime's armed forces and death squads murdered and tortured thousands of civilians, collectively punishing villagers suspected of sympathising with the 'rebels'. They also enjoyed $7 billion in military aid from the US.

Is the much hyped 'sectarian' violence in Iraq being similarly stoked and orchestrated. Muqtada al Sadr seems to think so...

But all I can recommend is that we ourselves ask the difficult questions that our own media refuses to ask.

'Divide and Rule' has been a successful strategy of conquerors as far back as the Romans.

Wouldn't it be surprising if the coalition weren't using this strategy in Iraq today?

And wouldn't the tactic of bombing holy Shrines, dividing up Baghdad with walls, and sending truck bombs into public places be the kind of things which could easily create distance between communities, or provoke anger, outrage and mistrust? Is this not also a form of collective punishment?

So, when IS a truck bomber not a truck bomber?

You decide.

Ends | 10 Aug 2007 | The Leg

comment | back to top | thoughts

Related articles:

2013:
Bombings of market places continue as 88 killed in in a day

2012:
3 July: Truck bomb in Diwaniya market near Shia mosque kills 40

2010:
710 officials killed with silenced pistols or rifles - Al Qaeda blamed
52 christian hostages killed, 15 car bombs kill 76 in Shia areas
Iraq Elections: Bombs kill 100+ in Baghdad - Al Qaeda blamed

2009:
Invasion divided brother from brother, neighbour from neighbour
19 Aug: 95 killed and 500+ wounded - Al Qaeda blamed
19 Aug: 95 killed and 563 wounded - Sunni dissidents blamed
9 July: Truck bombing of Afghan school kids - Taliban blamed
22 June: Bagdad bombings rise b4 30 June US withdrawal date
21 June: 72 killed as truck bomb hits Kirkuk mosque
24 Apr: 45 Iranian pilgrims killed by bomber in Muqdadiya
10 Apr: Suicide truck bomb kills 5 US troops in Mosul
7 Apr: 6 car bombs follow on arrests of US payrolled Sunni militia

2008:
Interlude: US elections 2008

2007:
US & Saudis funding Sunni extremists to ferment Sunni/Shiite war?
Iraq: State of instability
Disabled used to carry remote bombs which kill 91 in Baghdad
Blackwater operators accused of firing randomly at citizens
14 Aug: Yazidi (Kurdish area) - 200 killed by 4 truck bombs
6 Aug: Tal Afar (Sunni/Shiite area) - 28 killed in truck bomb blast
6 Aug: Cabinet crumbles, truck bomb attacks continue
16 July:Kirkuk (Kurdish area) - 80 killed, 150 wounded
7 July: Amirli (Shiite area) - market truck bomb kills 105
23 May: (Shiite area) Baghdad: market truck bomb kills 24
24 Feb: Al Habaniya - Truck bomb kills 37 near (Sunni) mosque
Al Habaniya- "we knew there was a strong insurgency here"
3 Feb: (Shiite area) Baghdad: market truck bomb kills 135
27 Mar: Tal Afar, N.Iraq - truck bomb kills 152
Tal Afar - 'a hotbed of insurgent activity'
US resorting to 'Collective Punishment' in Iraq
Return of the death squads - Iraq's hidden news
Pentagon plans death squad terror in Iraq

2006:
1300 Iraqis murdered within a week of Askariya shrine bombing

Related Videos: