The reading material IS appreciated, Matt. I have read several pieces by Mr. Taheri in the past- including his appearences on National Review Online all the way back to Feburary here, where he claimed to be speaking for the Iraqi Americans. Which stuck in my memory, because the only only sign waving pro-war Iraqis I could find anywhere were the ones he talked about.

He left Iran in 79, and has ben living mostly in the west. It should be noted that he is just another western commentator- one I enjoy reading more than most, thats for sure.

Also, based on what I have read from him, He would NOT agree with the categorization of all Iraqi resistors as saddamite dead-enders or terrorists. Nor would he even limit down all anti-american attacks to the categories he mentioned in the piece you listed. He seems to be very aware of the history and varying perspectives in Iraq for example here, where he talks about the shia perspective Additionally, However, as you know, its difficult to shoe-horn the problems in Najaf into the categories proposed by Taheri in any case, even if he would mean them to be a complete categorization of all anti-american violence.

As I said, I am more then happy to say 'many' or 'most' guerillas are Baathists or pro-Saddm folks- I just can't stand the rhetoric that insists that all of them are. And Terrorist is another order of person all-together. This is what I find de-humanizing.

Also, your remark: " The real fear of most Iraqis isn't occupation - it's the fear that the US will repeat the tragic error of 1991" is not in the piece offered. I don't know what he would think about it.

I would like a link, BTW to the source article if you have it handy, as I could not find it at my usual site. try: here for a comprehensive list of his pieces