A war founded on illusions, lies and right -wing ideology was bound to founder in blood and fire. Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. He was in contact with al Qaeda, he was involved in the crimes against humanity of september 11, 2001 . The people of Iraq would greet us with flowers and music. There would be a democracy. Even the pulling down of Sad dam's statue was a fraud. An American military vehicle tugged the wretched thing down while only a few hundred Iraqis watched.
Freedom from Saddam's dictatorship in those early days meant freedom to loot, burn, kidnap and murder. The mobs were followed by sinister squads who systematically destroyed every archive and government ministry (save the Oil and Interior which were secured by US troops), Islamic manuscripts and irreplaceable antiquities. The very cultural identity of Iraq was being annihilated.
yet, still the Iraqis were supposed to rejoice in their “liberation”. The occupying power sneered at reports that women were being kidnapped and violated—in fact, the abductions of men as well as women were at the rate of 20 a day. Even this week the promises and lies fell apart, the American military spokesman was still only able to give military casua lties this when more than 200 Iraqis are reported to have been killed in the US Marine attack on Fallujah. The occupying powers in Baghdad and their masters back in Washington said the resistance to the US presence was caused only by old regimists. Indeed, Paul Bremer, America's proconsul in Iraq, called them Baat h “party remnants”.
Civil war
Then Bremer called them “die hards”, then “dead-enders” . And as the attacks on US forces incre ased around Fallujah and other Sunni Muslim cities, we were told this area was the “Sunni triangle”. When the attacks again st U S troops continued to escalate, it was time to rewrite the chapter on pos t-war Iraq. “Foreign fighters”, Al-Qaeda, were now in the battle, said US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld. The US media went along with this nonsense, even though only 150 of the 8500 “security detainees” in American hands appear to be from outside Iraq.
This is just 2%. then, as winter approached and Saddam was caught, the occupying powers and their favourite journalists began to warn of civil war, something no Iraqi has ever been heard discussing. Iraq was now to be frightened into submission. The Shi'ites remained quiescent. They opened their mass graves and mourned those thousands tortured and executed by Saddam's butchers and then asked why it took us 20 years to stage our humanitarian invasion.
In fact, if the occupation authorities had bothered to study the results of a conference on Iraq, held by the Centre for Arab Unity Studies in Beirut recently , they might be forced to acknowledge what they cannot admit: that their opponents are Iraqis and that this is an Iraqi insurgency. An Iraqi academic, Sulieman Jumeili, who lives in the city of Fallujah, told how he discovered that 80% of rebels k illed were Iraqi Islamist activists. Only 13% of the dead men were primarily nationalists and only 2% Baathists.
‘New hope '
But we cannot accept these statistics. Because, if this is an Iraqi revolt against us, how come they aren't grateful for their liberation? So, after the atrocities in Fallujah just over a week ago, when four US mercenaries were killed, mutilated and dragged through the streets, General Ricardo Sanchez , sanctioned what is preposterously called “Operation Vigilant Resolve”. And now that Sadr's thousands of Shi'ite militiamen have joined in the battle against the Americans, Sanchez had to change the narrative yet again. No longer were his enemies Saddam “remnants”, or even al-Qaeda ; they were now “a small (sic) group of of criminals and thugs”.
So the marines smashed their way into Fallujah, killing more than 200 Iraqis, including women and children, while using tank fire and helicopter gunships against gunmen in the Baghdad slums of Sadr city. Sadr goes on the wanted list for a murder after an arrest warrant no one told us about when it was mysteriously issued months ago, and General Mark Kimmit, Sanchez's number two, told us that Sadr's military will be “destroyed”.
And so the bloodbath spreads ever further across Iraq . And with each new collapse, we were told of new hope. Yesterday Sanchez was still talking about “progress” in Fallujah and h ow “a new dawn is approaching”. Which is exactly what US commanders were saying exactly a year ago today when US troops drove i nto the Iraqi capital and when Washington boasted of victory against the Beast of Baghdad .— The Independent
ROBERT FISK
Sunday Tribune News April 11,2004
