The Price of Collaboration

by pessimist

There has been a lot of talk from the Bush (mis)Administration over the attacks by the insurgents against iraqis working for the US in its guise of the CPA. The language has been harsh and negative against these insurgents for these acts, and show that there is a serious misunderstanding among the Bush Leaguers over the motivations for these acts.

What they fail to understand is why the victims are considered traitors by their own countrymen. Maybe this will help them to understand - those who assist a nation who invaded their land and conquered it over false evidence and other lies for the takeover of the nations assests are not working in the interests of their nation, but of the invader. This, by anyone's definition, makes them traitors.

Let's borrow a page from yesteryear, when dealing with colaborators was considered an act of national honor.

This year is the 60th anniversary of the Normandy Invasion - D-Day. France, whose liberation from Nazi Germany began with that operation, is already reminding their younger people what happened during that time by having their elders, survivors of that time, speak of their experiences.

There are many testimonials as to the honor accorded to the Allies - Britain, Canada, the United States - for freeing France from Hitler's tyranny. The tales of this tyranny are heart-wrenching, especially when the subject of collaboration comes up:

Christian Vautier had left Caen with his parents, both resistance members, and spent much of the war on the run. He remembered it was French police that came to arrest his father in 1940, and a French family who later betrayed them in the Cher department.

"I can forget what the Germans did, though it costs me a deal of effort because I saw some terrible things, but those for whom I have absolutely no..." - the words failed him - "are those French people who put on jack-boots to hand over their countrymen to the occupier."

Substitute the appropriate Iraqi pronouns in place of the French, and maybe now it's a bit easier, even for the Arbusto Posse, to understand why most Iraqis are so lethal toward their brothers who sell out to the invader.