Iraq: Occupation and Instability
The nerve center for Iraq’s occupation, the Green Zone, is no longer secure, according to the Sept. 15 edition of the Financial Times, one of the leading newspapers of the British elite. The paper reports: “U.S. military officers in Baghdad have warned they cannot guarantee the security of the perimeter around the Green Zone, the headquarters of the Iraqi government and home to the U.S. and British embassies, according to security company employees.”
The context for this report is the rapid expansion of the Iraqi resistance and the support it is receiving from the Iraqi people. Currently there are almost 100 attacks a day on U.S. forces. “Bring it on,” was the challenge that George Bush issued to the Iraqi insurgents last July. Over 1000 U.S. troops have been died since then.
Shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld called the Iraqi insurgency “a handful of dead enders,” and predicted their speedy defeat. When that did not happen, Rumsfeld said that the situation would stabilize after the declaration of Iraqi ‘sovereignty.’ The opposite took place. Instead of dampening the struggle for national independence, the Iraqi people saw the ‘transfer of power’ for exactly what it was - a public relations stunt designed to convince them the occupation was over. The resistance picked up steam.
Now the Defense Department is talking about a larger wave of combat across Iraq, as preparations are made for January ‘elections.’
Elections
The elections scheduled for January, 2005 are an important part of Washington’s counter-insurgency strategy and aim to lend legitimacy to the U.S.-installed government.
The current U.S.-installed Prime Minister, Ayad Allawi, lacks popular support. Allawi, who lived in the West for many years, has well-known ties with CIA and British intelligence circles. He is widely seen as the main collaborator with the occupation.
Despite tough talk on his visit to the United States, Allawi has not been able to curb the resistance on central Baghdad’s Haifa Street - within walking distance of his office - much less in Iraq as a whole.
So U.S. policymakers are pinning their hopes on elections to build a broader base for the puppet government. This is unlikely to work, because putting a new mask on the occupation is not likely to fool anyone. The reality is, as long as the United States remains in Iraq, any regime in Baghdad will have to be maintained by U.S. troops carrying M-16s and patrolling the streets in Bradley Fighting Vehicles.
That the elections will take place is not even certain. U.N secretary Kofi Annan recently questioned whether the elections could be held in the current context. The U.S. hold on large sections of Iraq is tenuous and the resistance or the supporters of resistance govern major cities, such as Falluja.
Another Offensive?
According to reports in the New York Times, ABC and other media, discussion is underway in Washington concerning a November offensive against the Iraqi resistance and the cities that are not in U.S. control. The thinking is that it is better to wait until after the U.S. presidential elections, since the big jump in U.S. casualties that would be associated with an offensive could hurt Bush’s chance to be elected.
Bush launched this war to seize Iraq’s oil, dominate the Middle East and to gain an advantage over the other big powers. He will sacrifice any number of lives, Iraqi or American, to follow his dreams of expanding the empire of the dollar.
The Iraqi people have already paid a big price in the fight to free their country from foreign domination. They have endured death and torture. Americans in Iraq are fighting for a hypocrite and liar who wants to make the Middle East safe for U.S. corporations. Members of the U.S. Armed Forces who speak up and oppose the war are right to do so.
In the months ahead it’s vital that the anti-war movement continues to keep raising the demand to end the occupation. It is a matter of life and death.
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