Bigger bombs fail to 'pacify' Iraq
By Leslie Feinberg
The "shock and awe" of Operation Iron Hammer
is proving no more effective at crushing Iraqi guerrilla
resistance or intimidating the civilian population into
submitting to colonial-style occupation than did the opening
terror bombings of the imperialist invasion.
Since the launch Nov. 12 of this massive aerial bombardment
of and around Iraqi cities, in which the Pentagon has dropped
some of the biggest weapons in its arsenal, U.S. occupation
forces have taken some of their worst hits--militarily and
politically.
The brass are scrambling to rewrite the story of how two GIs
died in the northern city of Mosul on Nov. 22. Widespread media
accounts reported that the soldiers' vehicle crashed after
being hit with a volley of stones and gunfire, and that a crowd
of local residents, including youths, then slashed the throats
of the troops, pummeled their bodies and dragged them through
the streets.
Grim-faced Brig. Gen. Mark T. Kimmitt, at a Nov. 23 briefing
in Baghdad, confirmed the deaths but refused to discuss the
details. But coverage of the killings of the two soldiers,
meant to vilify the Iraqi people, triggered a collective
flashback: Somalia. Mogadishu. Black Hawk down.
The reporting of the rage in Mosul, a city of some 2 million
Kurds and Arabs that had allegedly welcomed the arrival of U.S.
occupation forces, was too evocative of Oct. 3, 1993. Then,
tens of thousands of Somali people, mostly civilians, fought
off an attack by helicopter-borne U.S. Rangers and Delta Force
commandos in a crowded market in Mogadishu. They jubilantly
dragged the bodies of dead troops through the streets of the
capital city.
It was the Pentagon's biggest battle loss since the Vietnam
War: 18 elite troops dead and 73 wounded. It was a turning
point that led to a hasty U.S. withdrawal from Somalia.
But the Bush administration has already made it perfectly
clear that it is hunkered down and prepared to "stay the
course" in Iraq. U.S. finance capital feels it has too much at
stake in the Middle East--financially, militarily and
politically.
The day after the soldiers were slain in Mosul, Pentagon
officials announced plans to keep some 100,000 troops on the
ground in Iraq through 2006.
And by that evening the Pentagon generals had changed their
tune. Media reports amended the narrative of what had happened
in Mosul: "Terrorists" were said to have ambushed the GIs, who
were killed by gunshots to the head. Their bodies were not
mutilated or dragged through the streets, said the general.
Operation Hammer galvanizes resistance
The deaths in Mosul were part of a barrage of resistance
throughout Iraq that weekend.At Baghdad airport on Nov. 22,
insurgents hit a DHL cargo A300 Airbus with two missiles
shortly after it took off, forcing an emergency landing. The
missile strike caused Pentagon authorities to announce the
suspension of civilian flights at the airport, which is also a
major base for the U.S. military.
The day before, resistance fighters had hit some of the most
heavily fortified and defended targets in Baghdad. Guerrillas
blasted the Palestine and Sheraton hotels on the banks of the
Tigris with rockets that sailed over a double row of
20-foot-high concrete blast walls installed by the
Pentagon.
Rockets also exploded at the Oil Ministry, headquarters for
the imperialist looting of Iraq's petroleum wealth. They had
been concealed in creative "low-tech" donkey-pulled carts
covered with hay.
Washington's warlords fear the mounting GI casualties will
broaden and deepen domestic anti-war sentiment.
Since the invasion began, more than 9,000 U.S. troops have
been killed, wounded or evacuated due to injury or illness.
(Democracynow.org, Nov. 18)
The rising toll of guerrilla warfare on the occupation foot
soldiers is discouraging European and Asian leaders allied to
Wash ington from deploying their own troops.
They are not eager to inflame anti-war sentiments in their
own populations by risking casualties.
And the UN has rebuffed Secretary of State Colin Powell's
request to send its staff back to Iraq.
Salivating for slice of profits
Despite bitter competition, other imperialist powers don't
want to see the penetration of outside capital fail in
Iraq--they just want some of that capital to be their own.
Bonn has acquiesced to Washington's pressure to back debt
reduction to aid Iraq's "reconstruction." Because of years of
sanctions, Iraq's foreign debt to the U.S., Germany, France,
Japan, Russia and the rest of the 19-country Paris Club is $40
billion. Bush cabinet members have been debating whether to
press other countries to write off as much as 90 percent of
this IOU.
In return, the U.S. is about to begin an accelerated bidding
program for projects in Iraq like oil-field repairs and
electricity generation, all necessary to create a pipeline of
profits out of the country. Companies from the other
imperialist countries are eligible to bid.
Guerrilla resistance has stalled out these projects and
stanched the flow of profits from looted oil.
The U.S. and other imperialist powers want to paste a fig
leaf of "self rule" over the naked military occupation by
constructing a supposedly sovereign government that could
extend its "invitation" to foreign troops.
But Washington wants to wait until next June to create a
seemingly sovereign government, and its rivals--anxious to
secure their slice of the profits--want it now.
A marionette labeled 'sovereignty'
The U.S. has appointed Rend Rahim Francke to be Iraq's
diplomatic representative in Washington. Few people in Baghdad
would recognize her. She was born there but spent most of her
life outside the country. She is a familiar face in Washington,
though, where for years she had lobbied political policy makers
to topple Saddam Hussein's government.
Francke came to the U.S. in 1981 and became a citizen six
years later. She worked as a banker and currency trader in
London, Lebanon and Bahrain.
She said she will speak "for the nascent Iraqi government."
"It is awkward," she added, "because technically Iraq is still
a country under occupation." (New York Times, Nov. 23)
Technically? There are 155,000 foreign troops currently
acting as a boot heel on Iraq; all but 25,000 are U.S.
troops.
Some members of the current puppet Iraqi Governing Council
have announced they want to stay in power after next June as a
legislative body--if the U.S. authorities will let them.
The Pentagon is trying to train a national Iraqi army and
police force, too, to share the casualties of occupation.
But this fledgling state is still small, poorly trained and
paid, and in the crosshairs of the anti-occupation resistance.
The simultaneous detonation of two huge bombs at police
stations 20 miles apart north of Baghdad on Nov. 22, killing
six Iraqi police, sent a powerful message that the resistance
will not tolerate collaboration with imperialism.
Reprinted from the Dec. 4, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
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