Armed Iraqi Citizenry?
Posted By John Moore on March 9, 2003
I just watched a Fox News report (sorry, no internet link available) showing people in Baghdad buying rifles and pistols. It looked like anyone could.
Now, I’m as much a gun rights supporter as anyone, but one of the arguments for citizenry owning firearms is to prevent tyranny.
Iraq *is* a tyranny, yet their citizens are allowed weapons. Furthermore, apparently they have been allowed this for a while, since there a numerous gun stores in Baghdad.
So gun rights folks…. got any ideas?
I think the Iraqi government is taking a calculated risk. Hussein lives in a fantasy world, this we know for sure. He may actually believe that an armed citizenry will fight the American liberators. His is a country at perpetual war, necessitating that everyone be armed, to shore up his worthless army.
If he were not always at risk of being invaded, I would think that he would take steps to disarm his citizens.
All of this is conjecture, of course.
I would imaging that most Palestinians are armed, too (those who can get their hands on a gun).
Hussein has a very good PR machine going. He hopes for an armed citizenry because, in all likelihood, he has them quite convinced that no matter how evil he is, we are the greater evil. They’ll band together to repel us (I recall reading a Tocq article about Hussein buying American military uniforms in preparation to commit atrocities on his own people that can then be blamed on Americans). If he succeeds, he will likely sweep down on his people and attempt to disarm them.
He needs to hope they haven’t learned too well.
Anyone who believes that there is a mass arming of Iraqi citizens is brain dead. Remember what numerous citizens of Iraq did after the 1991 war? Do you believe Saddam trusts his fellow citizens. This a PR ploy. I wonder how long it will be before we are treated to the spectacle of Iraqi troops surendering to the nearest Girl Scout troop?
I’m sure Saddam is only selling guns in regions where people are generally loyal to him – in other words to his fellow tribesmen in central Iraq. These folks have it better than other Iraqis. I seriously doubt that government-sponsored firearm sales are a reality in the South or North of Iraq, where people want to kill Saddam in a bad way.
Well, we saw them ‘buying’ weapons….but did we see them buying ammunition?
Hard to shoot guns without bullets..:)
First recall that when Iran had its last revolution, the people were armed…. but the guns were swiftly confiscated afterwards by “the new boss, same as the old boss.”
Second, the people may have guns, but do they have bullets?
Iraq, Firearms, and Mis-Information
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