Baath spokesman sounding bullish on the resistance, bearish on America

Saleh Al-Mukhtar, a former ambassador and senior person in the Saddam regime, and more recently a spokesman and essayist for the Baathist resistance, gave a talk in Amman at a closed session of alumni or graduates of Iraqi universities and institutes, and a reporter for the Jordanian paper AlArab alYaum prepared a summary, which included among a lot of other points, the following:

[Al-Mukhtar said]: The financial collapse, and the warnings that the attack on Iraq would lead to the collapse of America itself--this was among the good ideas of the resistance, which took aim in this way at their Achilles heel. He stressed that the resistance's focus on financial attrition came from the fact that the dollar is lord and master in American, and [financial attrition] was the only way to make America exit from Iraq.

And he then moved on to another form of attrition that the resistance has relied on, namely human attrition, stressing that America does not respect its soldiers, but sent them into the line of fire in Iraq on the pretext of fighting dictatorship and fostering democracy at the request of the Iraqi people, but they soon discovered the trick, and the fact that their presence in Iraq was in the service of colonialism and the protection of the security of Israel, in addition to the fact that there are a million American soldiers suffering from psychological and mental illnesses, and the sufferers do not return to Iraq because the mental impediments are even greater than the physical ones. And there is the fact that American households have come to feel the pressure of the attack on Iraq, once every household started to experience loss of life, or injury, or suicide after returning, in addition to the burden of $30,000 which is the share of each individual in the debt resulting from the attack on Iraq. This has become a crisis, and he stressed that this is the most important factor in their losing the war.

And based on the foregoing, the Iraqi researcher [he means Al-Mukhtar] said the continuation of the war will lead to the collapse of American capitalism, and he pointed to the phenomenon of separation of the rich states which have publicly called for preserving their wealth and indicated unwillingness to support the poor states. This is something that again impinges on the unity of America and its loyalty.

On the subject of negotiations or otherwise with America, Al-Mukhtar said:

The Americans were in communication recently via a third party requesting sessions with the resistance to formulate an agreement for withdrawal without conditions, but the resistance rejected the idea, stressing that the resistance has now reached a state where they are able to compel America to accept [the resistance's] conditions prior to any discussions. An [Al-Mukhtar] assured [his listeners] that the resistance is satisfied with its political and military position and has been concentrating on preventing America from negotiating with any marginal parties, and announced its readiness to take down any such agreement with them.