Iraq causing big trouble for Pentagon
By
John Catalinotto
Published May 4, 2005 5:12 PM
According to reports from the U.S. military
command, 150 people were killed in fighting in Iraq from April 28 to May 2 in
dozens of battles. While this overall total fails to explain all that is going
on, it indicates once more that the resistance movement which sprung up after
the start of the U.S. occupation in April 2003 is still gaining momentum.
Most independent news media have left Iraq by now, making it harder to
get an accurate assessment of developments there. A careful reading of the news
indicates, however, that the Pentagon is bogged down by a grinding occupation.
The new puppet government assembled through manipulated elections held last
January is still incapable of fully taking office. The “coalition of the
willing” is dwindling to only the most servile of U.S. client states. And
the Iraqi people’s suffering continues.
The U.S. Defense Department
has issued a report to Italy trying to justify the shooting of Italian Secret
Service officer Nicola Calipari by U.S. troops as he was transporting journalist
Giuliana Sgrena to the Baghdad airport on March 4. This declassified report,
leaked to the press in a visually censored PDF file, became whole again with a
few clicks of a mouse and was published in Corriere della Sera, the major
Italian newspaper.
It revealed that between November and March 12, in
greater Baghdad alone, there were some 3,306 clashes with the Iraqi resistance
forces, some 2,400 of them attacks on the occupation troops. This includes the
period just before and after the Jan. 30 “elections” that were
supposed to have been quiet. Twenty to 40 attacks a day is far from
quiet.
On the road to the Baghdad airport, know as the “Death
Strip,” there were 135 attacks, or more than one per day. U.S. Joint
Chiefs Chair Gen. Richard Myers said on April 26 that the resistance was about
“where it was a year ago.” This is probably a very optimistic
assessment, from Myers’ point of view.
Government in
Baghdad?
Meanwhile, the new Iraqi parliament was unable to form a
government until the end of April. Despite serious U.S. arm twisting, the
“officials” hadn’t taken office. Finally, on April 29 they
announced a government, but by May 3 five important ministerial
posts—including defense, oil and industry—were still without
permanent assignments.
Washington is having about as much success with its
“coalition of the willing” as it is with the Iraqi puppet
government. Even regimes like those in Poland and Ukraine, whose leaders go out
of their way to appease U.S. demands, have had to announce that they are pulling
out of Iraq. Their populations are so opposed to the war that if the governments
continue to risk the lives of the youths in Iraq they may soon lose their
elected positions at home.
Britain’s Tony Blair, the most useful of
Bush’s allies—who still has 8,000 troops in Iraq—is himself
suffering with the voters in this war, which is very unpopular in Britain. If
his opponents weren’t so right wing, they might present a serious
challenge in the upcoming elections. As it is, his dishonest conduct of the war
has become the major campaign issue.
In Italy, with Premier Silvio
Berlusconi already in trouble for his anti-worker economic policy, the war is
another thorn in his side. On top of this, the killing of Cali pari has
humiliated the Italian premier.
So in order for Berlusconi to avoid
appearing like a complete tool of Bush, Italy has had to issue its own
assessment of the shooting on the Baghdad airport road. This account refutes
U.S. assertions that the Italian car was speeding or that it received adequate
warning.
U.S. shows its weakness
Gen. Myers issued another
report on May 2, this one to the U.S. Congress. In it he outlined the
shortcomings in U.S. military options caused by the continued need for 138,000
troops in Iraq and another 17,000 in Afghanistan.
Myers would never give
the impression of serious weakness or admit publicly that the U.S. military was
unable to win a particular war. Still, he told Congress that, because of Iraq,
any additional major combat operations “may result in significantly
extended campaign timelines and achieving campaign objectives may result in
higher casualties and collateral damage.”
There’s another
aspect Myers didn’t mention.
This report came out on May 3. In
April, for the third straight month, the Army failed to recruit its quota of
troops. It has recruited only 85 percent of its target through April
30.
Recruiting is even more of a problem in the National Guard and
Reserves. In March, the Army Reserve signed up barely half its target of 1,600.
For the period from October 2004 through March, it recruited only 82 percent of
its goal.
It took tens of thousands of soldiers being killed in Vietnam
before the so-called Vietnam Syndrome took hold among the rank-and-file troops.
After 1,576 official deaths and somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000
serious injuries in Iraq, an “Iraq Syndrome” is already spreading
through the population.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
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