Mariam Mariam
In the past few days,the Bush administration has heightened its barefaced lies about the continuing illegal occupation of Iraq and the undisguised gradual destruction and even eventual partitioning, as some Americans have suggested. The invasion and illegal occupation of Iraq is one of the major crimes that America imperialism has perpetuated inth 21st century, and one reason why George Bush and other leading Neo-Conservatives, like Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld and their British poodle, Tony Blair, should eventually have their day in the International Court of Justice for crimes against humanity. The plight of Iraq must concern all of us, because it reveals the contempt for the humanity of developing countries by these absolutely immoral leaders of the leading imperialist countries. The Iraqi Resistence has also opened pages of heroism that we acknowledge, especially against the background of the lies and propaganda of the invaders of Iraq. Today’s materialhas been taken from axisoflogic.com, to present a different perspective on the American troops surge in Occupied Iraq. Iraq needs our solidarity.
The”Surge” in Iraq’s Atrocity By Ghali Hassan “We’re facing a new kinf of war… in which extremist use murder of the innocent to spread their idealogy of hatred and oppression and we must stop them”- U.S.President George Bush, 07 September 2007.
While the world’s attention is diverted by the U.S. threat to attack Iran and replace the elected government in Tehran with an American puppet, the U.S. troop “surge” in Iraq continues to murder, displace, and imprison Iraqis en masse. The aim is to manipulate public opinion at home, and divert attention from the Occupation and the destruction of Iraq. The U.S. is doing its best to manipulate public opinion at home by fabricating a glossy picture out of Iraq. It is now common for Western journalists reporting from Irqa to admit that they are reporting what they are told to report(by the U.S. military), not honest “reporting” of their own observations. On 03 September 2007, Katie Couric, a CBS News anchor, told Bob Schieffer on CBS’s Face of the Nation that Gen.
David Petraeus(U.S.commander in Iraq) believes there “really is a trend” of success on the security situation in Iraq and that the “surge”-a code word for escalation in U.S. violence- “needs to continue”. She admitted that her comment the “signs of life that seem to be normal” at a market she visited was based on “what the U.S. military wants me to see”, a one-day market trip staged by the U.S. military for propaganda purposes. However, there is nothing out of the ordinary about CBS reporting from Iraq. All other Western propaganda organs have been doing the same for years; distorting facts and the situation on the ground, and promoting Western imperialism.
The situation on the ground in Iraq is very different from what (the) Western media and politicians(such as) George Bush and John Howard)like us to believe. The Asssociated Press(AP) reports that the death toll for Iraqi civilians has doubled during the so-called U.S. troop “surge” from what it was a year ago. “ The number of death across Iraq rose by about 20 per cent since July”,added the New York Times. A total of 2,318 civilians died in August 2007. More than a million Iraqi civilians, mostly women, children and young men, have been murdered since the illegal invasion and subsequent Ocupation. At least 530 Iraqi scientists and academics (have been) assassinated since 2003 by U.S. and MOSSAD death squads in an orchestrated campaign to ‘strip Iraq of its scientific backbone’. Teachers and doctors were also targeted. In addition, tens of thousands of young Iraqi men have disapperad, believed to be murdered by U.S. –controlled thugs amd militias. More than 4,000 women and girls have disappeared.
Furthermore, the number of prisoners, including women and children, in U.S.-run jails in Iraq has increased by fifty-percent under the “surge”. U.S. forces and their collaborators are now holding more than 24,000 Iraqis without charge or trial. With only 1.2 per cent of these hailing from countries other than Iraq, it is clear the Iraqi Resistance is a legitimate national Resistance, and demolishes Bush’s assertion that the U.S. is fighting ‘al-Qaeda’ in Iraq. However, this is only the “official” number. With many Iraqi prisioners held in secret locations by the puppet government and U.S. forces, the real (“unofficial”) number could be much higher. According to Iraqi sources, in March 2007 there were 61,000 imprisoned by U.S. forces. The prisoners are denied basic human rights, are subjected to torture and physical abuse by military interrogators. The Iraqi Red Crescent reports that the number of internally displaced Iraqis has also doubled. More than 1.1 million Iraqi are now internally displaced, up from 499,000 earlier this year, forcing the Iraqi population into religious/ethnic enclaves and encouraging divisions and the partitioning of Iraq.
According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the number of Iraqis fleeing their homes grew by a factor of 20 in the same period. The IOM revealed that the ‘arrival of new U.S. troops is responsible for the human disaster’. At least 4.2 million Iraqis- mostly women and children- have been uprooted from their homes, a disaster comparable only to the 1948 Palestinian NAKBA caused by the creation of the state of Israel. Some 8 million Iraqis are in urgent need of water, sanitation, food, and shelter. More than 12,000 doctors have fled the country. Some 54% of Iraqis live in “absolute poverty” or less than one U.S. dollar a day, and the unemployment rate is staggering at 70% and rising.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has just completed the construction of the an entire self-sustained fortified city bigger than the Vatican- in the centre of Baghdad. The U.S. “Embassy” was built on imported slave workers from Asia and against Iraqi sovereignty and the wishes of the Iraqi people. The real purpose of this “ Embassy” is to intimidate Iraqis and to act as the centre for U.S. military bases and colonial administration. The next ‘benchmark’ is the passing of the so-called “Oil Law” that will destroy Iraq’s oil resources. (Just as ) the U.S. continues the destruction of Iraq and looting of Iraq’s wealth.
It is important to acknowledge that, until 2003, and despite the U.S.-Britain enforced genocidal sanctions, Iraq was a relatively peaceful country, with the best system of education, healthcare, and the primary state services in the region. Iraqi men and women lived in relative harmony and mutual respect. As a result of unprovoked U.S. act of aggression, and a well-planned systematic destruction, the “New Iraq” is a shattered country under conditions of insecurity and mass deprivation.
The motive for the ongoing Occupation of Iraq according to George Bush is to “provide security” and “help Iraqis build their country”. But, according to countless reports from Iraq, U.S. troops and their collaborators( Iraqis and foreign mercenaries) have aided and abetted violence against Iraqi civilians and participated in the systematic destruction of Iraqi society- dividing the population(along) religious/ethnic lines and then arming each faction to fight against the other. A UN human rigts commission reported in September 2006 that special commando units recruited from the Iranian Badr Organizations(Brigades), and trained by U.S. Special Forces under the supervision of Col. James Steele- John Negroponte’s right-hand man in El Salvador during the 1980s reign of terror, torture and killings throughout Iraq.
Echoing Bush, the Australian Prime Minister John Howard said: “We will withdraw our troops when the Iraqis can look after themselves”. It is the same old mantra of colonial racism. Howard forgot that centuries before he joined in the destruction and murderous Occupation of Iraq, Iraqis have looked after themselves very efficiently. The presence of foreign forces, including the 500 Australians, is against the wishes of the overwhelming majority of the Iraqi people who want an end to the Occupation and its associated violence.
The assumption that a U.S.- installed puppet government(of expartriate traitors, Western- oriented conmem, criminal militias and Iranian extremists-brought to Iraq on the back of U.S. tanks) is able to manage a foreign military Occupation of a nation with a unique history, is a Western scam and ignores Iraqi patriotism and Iraqis’ anti-imperialist consciousness. The puppet government is an extension of the Occupation, a façade used by the U.S.government to deflect attention form the Occupation and the planned destruction of Iraq and the Iraqi state. From the first day it was installed by the Occupation, the puppet government has had no power, is devoid of credibility(among the Iraqi people), and is riddled with corruption. Power and decision-making are in the hands of the Occupation. The puppet government proved to be so useful that it is blamed for everything that is deliberately inflicted inflicted on Iraq and the Iraqi people.
It is naïve to believe the U.S. is interested in building Iraq and helping Iraqis regain their freedom. Building Iraq was never the aim of the U.S. government. In fact since 1990, the primary aim of the U.S. interference in Iraqis sovereignty and independence. Every Iraqi is fully aware of this U.S.imperialist agenda.
In early 2004, an Iraqi friend wrote: “We’re facing a new kind of terrorism…in which powerful extremist nations use mass murder of the innocent civilians to conquer and loot our nation, and spread their ideology of hatred and oppression and we have no option, but to resist them by all means available to us”. His feelings are shared by the overwhelming majority of Iraqis who consistently rejected th Occupation of their country.
In a paper entitled “Notes on genocide in Iraq”, Ian Douglas of An-Najah National University in Nablus, Palestine, observes that: “ The US is out out of options in its ‘New Iraq’.Although it continues manuoeuvring politically, reinforcing its destruction of the life of Iraqi society, it has only two choices:1)Accept its defeat and a humiliating exit; or 2)Exterminate the population. The ‘surge strategy’, the walling-in of Baghdad districts, the project to impose on 50 localities the same constraints imposed on Fallujah, the four million exiled, the non-recognition of the Resistance amid its continual attacks and the military-style anti-occupation operations in Baghdad, reveals that the occupation, whatever choice it makes, has lost. It was genocide for a purpose, now it is genocide without purpose”. Douglas adds,” Baghdad can never be subjugated”.
Baghdad, where the troop “surge” is concentrated, is now dotted not with Saddam posters, but by checkpoints and separation walls. The capital of the country has become the capital of a large gulag, ghettoized according to religious/ethnic lines. Since the Americans forced their way here, an atmosphere of fera and terror engulfed the capital and the entire country. The city is not only ruled by pro-occupation militias and criminal gangs, its population centres are(often) bombed indiscriminately from the air resulting in large number of civilian deaths.
The “surge” has worsened conditions on the ground and increased the suffering of the Iraqi people. It is just another massacre of innocent Iraqi civilians, a failed attempt to subjugate Iraqis to the U.S.-imperialist agenda. No amount of deceitful Western propaganda will manipulate the Iraqi people. According to a recent poll conducted by ABC News/BBC/NHK, the number of Iraqis calling for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq increased when the troop “surge” began. That is why after nearly five years of murderous Occupation, President George Bush is running out of pretexts in Iraq. The only option left is for President Bush to heed the advice of millions of people around the world, including Iraqis, and announce the immediate end to the immediate end to the murderous Occupation of Iraq.
