With the Iraqi war dragging on anticlimacticly into its fourth month, the anti-American rumor-mill is in full swing in Iraq. According to the propaganda, the Americans are responsible for all the problems in Iraqi society. The most common accusation is that the US is not doing anything to restore electricity and is actually preventing its restoration. Such rumors can be expected, given that the US is responsible for restoring electricity and it is not happening.

Even more disturbing, though, is the prevalence of rumors that the US is responsible for bombings against Iraqis. First was the mosque bombing in Falluja, a hotbed of anti-American activity. Local residents have accused US fighter planes of dropping bombs on the mosque. Others, including the US Central Command have accused anti-American activists within the mosque of accidently setting off bombs they were making during a bomb-making class. The local intelligence officer for the US Army said he knew nothing about a bomb-making class, but a local resident says he saw someone target the mosque. "I saw a green laser pointing on Sheikh Leith's room from two cars. Then the cars drove away and the plane dropped the bomb," said 73-year-old resident Abdullah Jassem Ensayif. Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

In Ramadi, where seven Iraqis were killed by a bomb at a graduation of US-trained police cadets, locals are actually accusing the Americans of setting off the blast. The reasoning given is that the US wants to keep Iraq unstable so as to keep the Iraqis fighting amongst themselves so the US can rule the country longer. For more, see this article in the New York Times or this one from the Associated Press in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Other anti-American rumors reported by the Associated press:

- The Assaah newspaper claimed that the Israeli government modified its export laws to flood Iraq with Israeli goods. The paper urged Iraqis to carefully check Taiwanese or Chinese-made appliances for hidden Stars of David.

- The same paper recently reported that American helicopters swooped down on construction stores in the southern city of Nasiriyah to steal building supplies.

- Word is traveling on Iraqi streets that U.S. patrols are blaring messages from loudspeakers telling people they won't have electricity until attacks on Americans stop.

- An Iraqi group calling itself "Wakefullness and Holy War" issued a statement on Iranian TV claiming responsibility for recent attacks and announcing that Jews have arrived in Baghdad to spread "sex, prostitution and drugs among young people."

Such rumors, whether true or not, will undermine support for the US in its effort to rebuild Iraq. So long as the Americans are viewed as responsible for the chaos, support will grow for anti-American groups within the country. If support grows for these groups, it will become harder for Iraqis to cooperate with the American occupation. Any government set up under American rule will be suspect. Attacks will continue against American and British troops as well as against Iraqis viewed as collaborating with the occupiers.