London Independent reporter Robert Fisk writes in his most recent article:

“It’s going wrong, faster than anyone could have imagined.

“The army of 'liberation' has already turned into the army of occupation.

“The Shi’ites are threatening to fight the Americans, to create their own war of 'liberation'.

“At night on every one of the Shia Muslim barricades in Sadr City, there are 14 men with automatic rifles.

“Even the individual US Marines in Baghdad are talking of the insults being flung at them.

“’Go away! Get out of my face!’ an American soldier screamed at an Iraqi trying to push towards the wire surrounding an infantry unit in the capital yesterday.

I watched the man’s face suffuse with rage.

“’God is Great! God is Great!’ the Iraqi retorted.

“’F*** you!’

“It is much worse than that.

“The Americans have now issued a 'Message to the Citizens of Baghdad', a document that is as colonial in spirit as it is insensitive in tone.

“’Please avoid leaving your homes during the night hours after evening prayers and before the call to morning prayers,’ it tells the people of the city.

“'During this time, terrorist forces associated with the former regime of Saddam Hussein, as well as various criminal elements, are known to move through the area. Please do not leave your homes during this time. During all hours, please approach Coalition military positions with extreme caution.'”

“So now–with neither electricity nor running water–the millions of Iraqis here are ordered to stay in their homes from dusk to dawn.

“It’s a form of imprisonment, in their own country. Written by the command of the 1st US Marine Division, it’s a curfew in all but name.

“’If I was an Iraqi and I read that,’ an Arab woman shouted at me, 'I would become a suicide bomber.'

“And all across Baghdad, you hear the same thing, from Shia Muslim clerics to Sunni businessmen, that the Americans have come only for oil, and that soon–very soon–a guerrilla resistance must start.”

• Robert Fisk, reporter with the London Independent.

Related link:

• Independent