My childhood days were spent in Hyde County, North Carolina, which is just off the famed Outer Banks.  Generations of my family have lived there, through both slavery and freedom.

One of the historical points in during those times was back in 1967 in Middletown, in which I went into a little bit here.  At the time, the schools were being forced to integrate (but black people in the county fought it.  If you wanna know more about it, read this book) and racial tensions were at an all-time high.

The Klan had a building in Middletown where they had their rallies.  There had been several incidents between the black teenagers - one of them being my dad - who had brushes with the Klan, and people could see it was going to come to a boiling point.  My dad and his friends/family were hiding their guns at my uncle's house, and the Klan were trying to intimidate black people in the area by spreading leaflets and spraypainting houses.

Well, one night my cousin and some friends of his were out riding around in Middletown, and the road just happened to go right by the Klan's building, and one of dem dere good ole boys decided to get that ole shotgun out and shoot into the back window of the car.

No one was hurt.  But it didn't take but a hour or so to round up a posse to take a trip on the Klan house.

By the time the county police got there, I think two were shot, one on each side.  No one was killed, though, and most importantly, the Klan was never seen in that county again.  My father wasn't there, because he had went with one of my uncles to Manteo that afternoon.  For some reason, he never mentioned all of that stuff to me.  I had found out about the book, and mentioned some of the stuff I had read.  I guess he never thought it was that important. 

However, I did.  It was a perfect example of how citizens in a community took things into their own hands to run the cess pool of society out of their county.  

So imagine how I felt when I read this (from Free Iraqi):

Citizens of Al Mudiryiah were subjected to an attack by several militants today who were trying to punish the residents of this small town for voting in the election last Sunday.
The citizens responded and managed to stop the attack, kill 5 of the attackers, wounded 8 and burned their cars.
3 citizens were injured during the fire exchange. The Shiekh of the tribe to whom the 3 wounded citizens belong demanded more efforts from the government to stop who he described as "Salafis".

I bet those maggots will think twice before they go back into that town again.  And that's what all Iraqis have to do in order to get rid of terrorism in their country; simply fight back.  They don't all have to be combative, but they should cooperate and target areas where these people are giving these terrorists aid and sanctuary, whether it's businesses or residences.  Terrorists can't hide if there aren't any hiding places.

Here's hoping there are more stories like these popping up.  Iraqis are learning what this so-called "insurgency" is about; they aren't rebels, they're invaders.  They are trying to take over the country, and a good number of them aren't even from Iraq to begin with.  They want to take over the country and place the Iraqis in even harsher conditions than Saddam ruled them under.  Thus, the sooner the Iraqis start rooting these worms out from under the rocks they're under, the better.