The bloody mess that is Iraq: According to a recent TV viewing survey in the Arab world, the most widely watched TV news programs are AlJazeera's Hiwar Maftuh followed by Al-`Arabiyya's Bi-l-`Arabi. The former is hosted by the skilled Tunisian-Lebanese Ghassan Bin Jaddu, and the latter is hosted by the highly obnoxious and very incompetent Lebanese right-wing Jizel Khuri, whose command of Arabic is weaker than my command of German. But Bi-l-`Arabi had a very unusual show today: it aired interviews with Antoine Antun and Muhammad Ra`d, both are Lebanese who were held hostage in Iraq. Their horrifying accounts (which would be presumably seen by tens of millions of Arabs around the world) would send a chilling message to all the Arabs working in Iraq. In fact, Ra`d ended his account by pleading with all Arabs in Iraq to leave immediately. Antoine Antun (who had a factory in Iraq) told the story of his kidnapping, when Iraqi (puppet) police cars and men, accompanied by tens of armed Iraqis, showed up at his factory and took him a way one night. His captors were members of the Islamic Army in Iraq group. When he was telling his story, you could not but be surprised at the level and scale of their organization, and wide networks of support throughout the country. He also stressed that all the captors and the armed men that he encountered were Iraqis. Muhammd Ra`d was a truck driver from Lebanon who was told to carry a load for the Iraqi puppet army. Upon arriving at the Syrian-Iraqi border, he learned that he was lied to, and that the shipment was for the US military. He thereupon refused to drive further to Baghdad. My friend`Amir told me that he read somewhere that some people cooperating with the armed groups in Baghdad, immediately alert them from the border area to the arrival of trucks that are destined for US military. Ra`d then went on a personal business to Baghdad (and without his truck), where he was kidnapped from his hotel. He was kidnapped by a group from Fallujah, and then a group in Ramadi kidnapped him from that group in Fallujah. He spoke about gangs and armed groups roaming the streets everwhere, and his captors were also all Iraqis. He underwent severe torture, and was forced to watch as somebody among the captors called "the butcher" cut off the tongue of an Egyptian hostage, before beheading him. The Egyptian was accused of selling "immoral" CDs, and "the butcher" cut off his tongue to prevent him from saying Ash--Shahadah (the Islamic testimony of faith) before dying. This should be an occasion to underline a distinction I had written about in Arabic. I shall say it again. These criminal gangs are not resistance groups. Not all of what is perpetrated in Iraq in the name of resistance is in fact resistance. But, not all what the US describes as terrorism is in fact terrorism. Those who are commiting acts of mayhem, carbombs, beheadings, reckless and aimless violence are terrorist groups. But those (other)Iraqis who may focus exclusively on targeting the foreign occupation forces are resistance groups, provided they do not harm civilians of course. The Iraqi people do have the right to reject, nay fight, the foreign occupation forces in their lands. The fact that the occupation forces have changed their names (into the so-called "multinational forces") will only fool the voters in Iowa and Oklahoma, but not the people in Iraq. Be certain of that. I have never stepped foot in Iraq under Saddam, and would never step foot in Bush's "liberated" Iraq.