Two Sides (Page 2)

The Baghdad neighborhood of Adhamiya is resistance country. The graffiti in this heavily Baathist and Sunni area strikes a defiant posture: "Saddam, in our souls and with our lives we will sacrifice for you!" Or, "God protect and guide the hand of al mujahedeen."

The US military considers Adhamiya one of the city's most dangerous sectors. American patrols are regularly attacked here. Two Time journalists were badly wounded by a December 10 grenade attack in Adhamiya, and when Saddam was captured three days later, the neighborhood's streets exploded in spontaneous protest.

In Adhamiya I meet Abu Hassan, a former army captain who now imports machinery and funds resistance "operations." He says he might introduce me to some of the fighters.

At our first meeting one of his sons shows up with a pistol. The young man empties the gun's chambers into his palm and shows me the flat-tipped and highly destructive dumdum bullets. Abu Hassan warns me to be completely honest about my identity and tells me to bring copies of the books I've written. "Otherwise some people might think you are CIA," he says with a smile.

Next he introduces me to a well-dressed man who speaks English but won't give his name. The man says he's a former general in the Iraqi Army. Over little glasses of strong sweet tea, he holds forth with a torrent of virulently anti-Shiite, hard-core Sunni Baathism.

"The Shia know nothing! The Sunni must govern Iraq," growls the ex-general. But his main grievance is America. "We could not fight their weapons, they bombed us from the sky. The Iraqi Army was very strong, very important. It was very bad when America destroyed it!" The former general is on the edge of the couch, gesticulating, driving home his points with an intense, contained rage. Behind him on a TV screen, a black-and-white Cary Grant chatters away in silence.

For the next meeting, I am given simple instructions: Go to a certain street corner and wait. Someone in a car will pick me up. When the car arrives it is Abu Hassan. He's tense and again warns of the dangers. "If anything goes wrong they will find your hotel and kill you."

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