There are a few interesting things I noticed about Khalidi's article:

1) "It does not matter what you say you are doing in Fallujah, where U.S. troops just launched an attack after weeks of bombing. What matters is what you are doing in Fallujah—and what people see that you are doing."

Actions are not disembodied from their actors and actees. And the reasons for actions are very important when you are talking about rational agents. Whether the reasons the Bush administration has for invading Fallujah are wrong is another matter; but to strip human actions from their reasons is madness.

2) "Americans may not be aware of it, but the wholesale theft of the property of the Iraqi people through privatization was prominently reported all over the Middle East."

This reminds me of the Marxist phrase "Property is theft." How can you even have the concept of theft without property? How can making property out of what is nobody's property (i.e. "public" property) be theft?

3) "Fears that they will lose their resources shape much of the nationalism of the peoples of the Middle East."

How is it anybody in Iraq's resources when Saddam controlled the oil? Just because your government controls the production of oil, doesn't mean you own it. Just because there is oil in your country doesn't mean it is your oil. Oh wait, it is because the government bribes you with welfare handouts (see Kuwait and Saudi Arabia).