Friday, April 07, 2006

Elizabeth Rubin writes, from Darfur:
Arab nomads park their camels in the livestock market at the edge of a neighborhood locally known as Falluja because of the violence there.

[...]

The women watched as their husband said, "Yes, this is me," and the armed men said, "You, imam, are the one asking God to give victory to the Tora Bora" — a nickname for antigovernment rebels — "so today is the last day for you."

Aside from the horror, I don't understand the references to sites of U.S. military operations. I assume they derive from satellite news coverage of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but do they indicate anti-Americanism, or anti-Westernism, among the Arab janjaweed? Rubin does mention:
There were huge anti-U.N. demonstrations in Khartoum last month, and Sudanese politicians played the colonialism card very heavily.

though the U.S. is fairly anti-U.N. itself, and as good a friend as Khartoum has in the world. Even more frightening would be if the janjaweed so themselves in the role of the U.S. troops, righteously destroying the rebels, their villages, etc. -- not impossible, given the focus of television coverage on civilian casualties.