not even I could make up stuff like this...
an article in saturday's la times (4/7/04) headlined fallouja's fighters trade weapons, not allegiances, staff writer alissa j. rubin focused on the us-sanctioned fallouja brigade which was forming up as insurgents donned uniforms they worn as soldiers in the pre-invasion iraqi and prepared to serve once again under orders from several of saddams former commanders.
near the end of the article, some of the men who, for three weeks previous, had managed to successfully resist marines trying to pacifiy the city began discussing factors which had, in their opinion, worked to their benefit...
dulaimi, 50, a warrant officer in the new force, told of how the americans had planned to drop a bomb that "emits a kind of smoke that would paralyze the people of fallouja for six hours." but when the pilots began their flights over the city to drop the substance, "they looked down and all they could see was water. there was no city. it was like a mirage in summer," he said. other brigade members nodded vigorously.
another widely reported miracle involved spiders that " had come out of the desert and killed the Americans by biting them. These were no ordinary spiders, said one of the other men, but killer arachnids that could run 15 miles an hour and whose bite felled some of the Marines
sheik dhafir subhi alubaidi told thousands gathered for friday prayers at one fallouja mosque a similar story about spiders fighting the americans.
the sheik spoke too about "the knights dressed in white who fought on the iraqi side." those, he said, "were the soldiers of god, who made the iraqis victorious and enabled them to defeat their enemies."
brigade member abu omar retold the story slightly differently, saying that when final negotiations were underway, the americans told the falloujans that they did not care about having them turn over the weapons. all they wanted, he said, was for them to hand over the knights on horses dressed in white. "these white-dressed horsemen are the angels of god who were sent to fight the infidel at the side of the prophet muhammad," he said.
whether it was angels or realpolitik that resulted in the deal, there was little question in the minds of locals that the deal with the u.s., if it holds, represents a profound shift in the occupation force's military strategy.
"this is a turning point because i'm sure the americans have come to the conclusion that using force against the resistance is not a good solution," said sheik ali salih badrani, 54, who lives in a middle-class neighborhood near jolan and was receiving a steady stream of visitors friday afternoon.
i can't think of anything i could add to that.