I am really mad at Tariq Ali. His romanticization of and praise for the "Iraqi resistance" bothers me. We leftists should be the first to oppose the Wahhabi fanatics who ARE VERY ACTIVE in Iraq, I now know for sure. This is not to dismiss all Iraqi groups opposed to the occupation of course, or to diminish one's opposition to US occupation. But the likes of Tariq Ali, and some Arab nationalists here, are making a huge mistake by the blanket adoption of the Iraqi "resistance" and its tactics. People who send car bombs (whether they are Wahhabi fanatics or puppet prime minister Allawi) should be condemned without reservation. A Lebanese Shi`ite was beheaded in Iraq last week, and I am told that this was in response to Hizbullah's statement against the gruesome beheading of the American citizen in Iraq last month. In other news, Saddam's rhetoric is back, it seems. The new Iraqi puppet defense minister issued a statement yesterday in which he threatened to "cut off their hands, and their heads." Is this the new Iraq promised by Bush? In the West, we often reduce politics in the Middle East to fundamentalism. Not true. Next week, I am speaking to a group of Marxist Arab revolutionaries in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which is a stronghold of Hizbullah. The left is not dead in the Middle East, although many in the left need to be retired NOW.