An op-ed by Kyle Szarzynski in University of Wisconsin-Madison student paper the Badger-Herald says the terrorists in Iraq have a right to kill American soldiers.

A recent Lancet study reports that 654,965 Iraqis were killed as a result of the war between March 2003 and July 2006. This figure is important because it demonstrates that proportionately the U.S. military has murdered far more Iraqis than Saddam Hussein ever did. Even the U.S.-funded “al-Anfal Campaign,” an anti-Kurdish operation during the late 1980s that culminated in the Halabja poison gas attack of 1988, is outmatched by the current savagery. …

Let’s consider this much-maligned Iraqi resistance. Compromised of diverse and disconnected organizations ranging in ideology from nationalism to Marxism to Islamic fundamentalism, the insurgency is united by its opposition to the occupying forces. Its tactics include rocket strikes, suicide bombings, sniper attacks, ambushes, sabotage and peaceful protest.

The military, in conjunction with mainstream media, has distorted the insurgency beyond recognition. Contrary to current dogma, resistance is not a bastion for foreign fighters, let alone a fifth column for al-Qaida. According to a recent Washington Post report, a mere 4 to 10 percent of all resistance fighters are non-Iraqi.

The second big lie is that the insurgents are all either religious fanatics, terrorist-types who are intent on restoring the Caliphate or ex-Baathists nostalgic for Saddam. The truth is another matter. Estimates place the number of insurgents between 30,000 and 200,000, crossing political, ethnic, tribal and religious lines.

Even more important, however, is the support the insurgency receives from the general population. This is hardly surprising, since 82 percent of Iraqis say they disapprove of the U.S. and allied militaries in Iraq, according to a recent Washington Post report.

What all of this adds up to is the following: The Iraqi insurgency is an organic movement, born out of the rape and brutalization of its country by an imperialist power. Most of the fighters — and their far more numerous sympathizers and abettors — are not motivated by politics or religion, but by simple self-interest.