Mr. Babelon in Baghdad writes:
Some folks here say that the insurgents are capturing and releasing people to show the Coalition that they can get at them any time they would like, and this is a warning to lighten up in Fallujah or else.Regardless of what you think about this particular theory, the really funny thing (in a twisted sort of way) is that the Iraqis are making up stories to try to explain the actions of the Coalition (for instance, the four contractors who were killed in Fallujah were Jews, which explains the strong reaction by the Coalition Forces), and Westerners here are making up stories to explain the actions of the insurgents.
I tend to think that the "warning" theory shows more coordination and more restraint than the insurgents have shown up to this point. I prefer to think the insurgents kidnapping people are actually aliens, and they are cloning the people they kidnap and releasing the clones as part of a larger effort to take over the earth.
A little while back, Mr. Babelon was making up theories of what kind of car will get you killed in Iraq. (He lost a friend who made the wrong choice in transportation.)
This goes to show, as he says, that humans have to make up reasons for things they don't understand; perhaps, things that have no reasons. This applies to the insurgents, too. They have their own theories, and ascribing omniscience or too much (or too little) rationality to them is a mistake. Same for the Americans. And Mr. Babelon is there. Small wonder, then, that we who are not in Iraq have contradictory or nonsensical theories of what's happening there.
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