Editorial
Five years of occupation
WWP on Iraq
Published Mar 13, 2008 12:53 AM
The U.S. has now occupied Iraq for five years. This has been an
unrelenting nightmare for the Iraqi people. It has also been U.S.
imperialism’s worst military debacle. It has drained the living standards
of the working class in the United States. It has made some U.S. corporate
owners very rich. It has killed 1 million Iraqis and destroyed the lives of
tens of thousands of U.S. youth. It has turned 70 percent of the population
against the war and the president. But the anti-war movement has not grown.
Only by holding onto those contradictory ideas at the same time, can we begin
to understand what five years of occupation of Iraq has meant. Let’s look
at them one at a time.
Before 1990 and the U.S.-imposed sanctions, Iraq was relatively affluent.
Children didn’t go without food or medical care then. Sunnis and Shiites
intermarried. But in 2003 the U.S. bombed its way into Iraq, promising a quick
victory over Saddam Hussein and “democracy” for Iraq—while
U.S. corporations prepared to take over Iraq’s oil wealth.
Since then, an estimated 1 million Iraqis have been killed and hundreds of
thousands maimed. Nearly 5 million Iraqis are refugees, 2.5 million within Iraq
and another 2.2 million in Syria and Jordan. According to U.N. reports, 43
percent of Iraqis live in abject poverty on less than one dollar a day; 60
percent to 70 percent of the workforce is unemployed; 70 percent of the
population can’t get adequate supplies of drinking water; and 80 percent
lack basic sanitation. Cholera epidemics now rage in nine of Iraq’s 18
provinces. Child mortality has risen sharply. Sectarian fighting—for
which the occupation is responsible—makes daily life hell.
Yet for all the suffering the Pentagon unleashed upon the Iraqi civilians, the
U.S. has lost the war. “Shock and awe” made Iraqis suffer but
failed to make them submit. Instead, a resistance has endured that can only be
described as heroic. This resistance, while not unified, has exposed the
weaknesses of the Pentagon. The big one facing recruiters right now is that
insufficient numbers of U.S. youth are willing to volunteer as cannon fodder in
their war of conquest. U.S. troops are stretched to the breaking point, forced
to return for two and three combat tours. The generals wonder when the 158,000
still in Iraq will break.
The latest study shows the war costs $12 billion each month. The Bush gang had
promised in 2003 that the whole war would cost $60 billion, and that this would
be paid out of Iraqi oil revenues. One economist, adding in the future care of
seriously wounded troops, says the war will cost U.S. taxpayers $3
trillion.
Not everyone has suffered. Dick Cheney’s Halliburton, Blackwater and some
other companies got rich and are getting still richer. Big Oil makes record
profits, playing with the oil shortfalls that have driven petroleum prices to
$100 a barrel. When George W. Bush, speaking recently without a canned speech,
dared to claim that the war was good for the economy, he was thinking about his
partners in crime who own these industries.
Iraqi death and suffering defies mere words. But to add to the toll, the U.S.
stepped up its air strikes sixfold in 2007. It doubled the number of Iraqis
held in captivity. Anti-war activists and experts meeting in Berlin March 7-9
concluded that the U.S. occupation has brought “chaos” to Iraq.
There is no doubt that in a just world the U.S. corporations behind this war
would have to pay immeasurable reparations to the Iraqi people.
U.S. troops were dying somewhat less frequently toward the end of 2007. The
generals claimed success for the “surge.” But the news on March 10
was that two bombs had killed eight U.S. troops in one day. Besides the 4,000
killed in combat, at least another 30,000 are severely wounded, and tens of
thousands more live in psychic pain.
These extreme sacrifices for imperial conquest are limited to a narrow section
of the population, those who “volunteer”—usually out of
economic necessity. With Iraq now out of the headlines and off the top of
television news, the anti-war movement has slowed down. The exception is the
movement of Iraq veterans and active duty troops who are exposing this
war’s crimes at the Winter Soldier hearing in Washington March 13-16. In
addition, polls show that 70 percent of the population think the war must end
as soon as possible and a majority believe the war has wrecked the economy.
They also look to the elections to resolve this horrible situation, which has
been a damper on initiative and militancy.
The record is grim after five years. There are no heroes except the Iraqis who
keep resisting the occupation. They have humbled the most powerful military in
human history. After five years the first step in resolving Iraq’s
nightmare remains the same: U.S. out of Iraq now!
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email:
[email protected]
Subscribe
[email protected]
Support independent news
DONATE