Chain of command is breaking down

Is the U.S. occupation of Iraq reaching a tipping point?

The first week in October has seen some of the most intense resistance by Iraqis against U.S. military forces since the March 2003 invasion. Car and roadside bombing attacks are at an “all-time high.” (France Press Agency, Oct. 5) Fighting by the Iraqi “insurgency,” that is, by the Iraqi resistance to U.S. occupation and aggression, is at “historically high levels,” according to Pentagon officials. (New York Times, Aug. 17)

A new poll done for the University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes finds that most Iraqis want the U.S. to withdraw and “about six in 10 Iraqis say they approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces.”

These results are remarkable as they are almost surely biased on the low side, given the state of terror that Iraqis endure. Iraqi civilian deaths have reached staggering rates at more than 100 a day—that’s almost 37,000 a year!—according to the latest report from the United Nations Assistant Mission for Iraq.

On top of the military crisis, the economic situation is worsening. Inflation in Iraq is over 70 percent. The price of fuel and electricity has tripled since the start of the year. Unemployment is estimated at between 40 and 60 percent. In this oil-rich nation, gasoline is scarce and waits at the pump can last all day.

Last December, the U.S.-controlled International Monetary Fund (IMF) forced the Iraqi government to lift subsidies on oil prices. Gasoline’s official price climbed from 4 cents to 67 cents a gallon. But, because of shortages, most Iraqis must buy their gas on the illegal market, where the price is over $3 a gallon. (New York Times, Aug. 26) The average wage for an employed Iraqi is $150 a month.

The war also impacts the U.S. economy. A new report from the Congressional Research Service states that the war is now costing U.S. taxpayers almost $2 billion a week, twice as much as in the first year of the invasion.

That’s $2,000,000,000 every seven days!

That much money could pay for health insurance for everyone who needs it in this country, or new housing for the survivors of Katrina, or medical care and food for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children who are malnourished and dying as a consequence of 15 years of U.S. bombings, sanctions and other atrocities.

On the U.S. side casualties are at record levels. From Oct. 2 to 4, some 13 soldiers died in Baghdad, the highest three-day total since the war began. Over 2,700 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq and some 20,000 have been wounded in combat.

In September, “776 U.S. troops were wounded in action in Iraq, the highest number since the military assault to retake the insurgent-held city of Fallujah in November 2004.” (Washington Post, Oct. 8)

U.S. military resisters

But there is also opposition and growing resistance among U.S. soldiers. According to USA Today, over 8,000 troops are now AWOL, most living underground in the U.S. Many military personnel who applied for conscientious objector (CO) status have been denied, court-martialed and imprisoned.

Last week, the Army brought charges against Spec. Suzanne Swift. She is the U.S. soldier who was arrested and confined to base for going AWOL after her charges of sexual harassment and assault were ignored by the military.

Swift has refused to return to Iraq, where she says she was sexually harassed by a commanding officer. She says the harassment also took place at her base in Fort Lewis, Wash., where she is currently being held.

On Sept. 12, Oregon anti-war activists, including Iraq Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace, sat in at the offices of Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) demanding a congressional inquiry on behalf of Swift and all women in uniform. After DeFazio’s office was flooded with phone calls, emails and faxes, the representative agreed to initiate such an investigation.

Spec. Darrell Anderson has returned from Canada, where he has been living since January 2005 after refusing a second deployment to Iraq. Anderson came back from Iraq in 2005 with a Purple Heart after taking shrapnel from a roadside bomb. He described to Democracy Now! journalist Amy Goodman the point at which he decided that he couldn’t fight anymore:

“I arrived in Baghdad in January 2004, and it was in April when I was ordered to open fire on a car of innocent civilians, and I refused. My superiors told me that it was military procedures, if a car comes through a traffic stop, you are ordered to open fire. And I just didn’t agree with our procedures we were doing there, because if I followed them I would be killing innocent people.

“I refused. They told me if I refused again, I’d be punished. But I was still a fresh troop on the ground, so no action was taken. One day I saw a couple of my fellow soldiers get hit, and I pulled my trigger while pointing it at an innocent child. But my weapon was on safe, and then I realized what I was doing, and I just realized that no matter how good you believe you are, when you’re there, that you’re eventually—you know, the evil in this is going to take over, and you’re going to kill people.”