Developments Overseas:
Iraqi armed resistance spreading

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As time passes, US imperialism is sinking deeper into the quagmire that is Iraq. After hurriedly attacking and occupying Iraq, US troops are now confronted with the all-sided resistance of the Iraqi people, deepening demoralization, confusion as well as the growing clamor of the American people to send their troops home. The people's condemnation and opposition to the war and continuing US occupation of Iraq continues to grow in the US.

The Iraqi people's armed and unarmed resistance against the colonial invaders is spreading and intensifying.

Small guerrilla groups attacking the overextended American troops are now emerging in various parts of the country. For several months now, American and British troops have been trying hard to crush the emerging guerrilla movement. In encounters with better-armed troops, the Iraqis have repeatedly used the terrain to their advantage and demonstrated their will to fight. The armed Iraqis come from everywhere to hit the American troops. Not a day passes without the occupying troops suffering casualties. In fact, more American troops have been killed since Bush declared the end of "major combat operations" on May 1 than during the actual war of aggression. As of August 27, up to 333 Americans have been killed while 1,212 have been wounded. Compare this to the 138 killed during the US and UK invasion in April and May.

US imperialism belittles the Iraqi guerrillas, claiming they are only either Saddam Hussein "loyalists" or remnants of the Iraqi Republican Guard. But at the same time, they have cowardly pulled back their troops and positioned them outside the cities in order to avoid becoming easy targets for city-based guerrillas. Because the present 148,000 US forces in Iraq are unable to stop these attacks, the UK is now bringing in more troops and the US is also planning to send more American soldiers. Contrary to its previous stand not to give any role to the United Nations (UN) in the "reconstruction" of Iraq, the US plans to file a resolution in the UN to form a US-led "multinational peacekeeping force". However, the plan to add troops will only increase the number of dazed soldiers targetted by Iraqi guerrillas.

Simultaneous with the military actions, ordinary Iraqi people are launching intensive protest actions. Based on their actions and statements, the Iraqi groups are not driven by a desire to restore the Hussein regime but by an intense hatred and disgust for the arrogant, destructive and exploitative US imperialist occupation.

Worsening condition of the people. It is estimated that up to 8,000 civilians were killed and 20,000 injured as a result of the invasion. This does not take into account the thousands of people victimized during the occupation due to indiscriminate shooting by the occupying troops, the criminality that spread after the US occupied the cities and the overall social discord.

Millions of Iraqis suffer from severe hunger and unemployment which they did not experience under the Saddam Hussein regime. Indiscriminate US bombings have destroyed all facilities that provide basic services. Four months have passed since the "end of the war" but electric power remains erratic and water supply is insufficient.

The mere restoration of electric power requires $13 billion. An additional $16 billion is needed to restore the water supply. It is estimated that over $100 billion is needed just to repair and restore all of the facilities destroyed by the US.

Worse, oil supply is inadequate. Despite its oil wealth and in spite of its former status as a big oil exporter, Iraq now imports oil to meet its needs. Iraq's oil wells produce less than a million barrels of oil a day � a far cry from the 2.8 million barrels before the occupation. It is estimated that Iraq would need to import an additional 750,000 barrels of oil per month just to meet its needs. When the Americans opened the oil wells in northern Iraq, they planned to export the oil, prompting the Iraqis to bomb the oil pipeline to Turkey in anger.

Exploitation by US corporations. The current hardship in Iraq is made even worse by the greed of US corporations scrambling to grab the biggest benefits through the easiest means. The occupiers ordered a stop to the repair of hospitals and the restoration of general health services because "American advisers" suggested that it would be more appropriate to first subject all medical equipment and supplies to assessment by an American company. To expedite the process, Iraq will be forced to obtain supplies from American companies. Likewise, the US has put a stop to the operation of a Liberian company providing mobile phone services supposedly because it puts other companies at a disadvantage. In truth, the US just wants to put the telecommunications business under the lone control of Worldcom, a gigantic American monopoly that was involved in big-time fraud in the US.

Violent suppression of Iraqis. More violence and repression is the invaders' response to the Iraqi people's opposition and resistance. When Iraqis rallied in front of the office of Paul Brenner, the US administrator in Iraq, American soldiers rained bullets on the demonstration. Two rallyists died on the spot. When the people of Fallujah launched a rally in April, 16 persons were shot dead by American soldiers. This also occurred in Mosul and Karbala where 14 people were killed. When the Iraqis brought their demands to the media, the US harassed or shut down the latter.

Out of fear, the American soldiers fire indiscriminately at anyone they suspect � including children, elderly folk, women and even members of the media. The arbitrary ransacking of homes, the arrest and harassment of anyone suspected of being a Saddam "loyalist" � which in the eyes of American troops includes almost all Iraqi males � is widespread.

Inutile US puppet. The puppet interim council set up by the US in Iraq is inutile and has become a laughing stock. From the start, the majority of the people never supported the puppet and token council, and thus, at no time was it considered legitimate in the eyes of the Iraqis. The people loathe it because of its subservience to the occupiers and because it does not have any real power and strength.

In other places, the political structure has been destroyed. The widespread fighting precludes any hope in the foreseeable future that the US will be able to remedy the situation. Direct colonial military occupation by the US is at present the only way of governing Iraq, and there is no indication that this will change for a long time to come.

Growing opposition within the US and UK. At the same time, there is spreading anger and disgust among the people even within the US and UK over how the Bush regime and Blair doctored intelligence reports to justify the invasion of Iraq. Opposition even among other reactionary forces of these countries is also mounting because of the growing number of soldiers being killed and the rising cost of maintaining them in Iraq.

In addition, there is a growing clamor in the US to bring the American troops home. Efforts to bring them home are now being led by no less than the soldiers' families. They see the vacuousness in the US military's much vaunted high-tech war and the promise of zero casualties among the troops. The ghost of Vietnam is very much alive in the consciousness of the American people. It is not a distant possibility that these factors will force the Bush regime to withdraw from Iraq even before gaining completely control over it.

While the US occupation of Iraq drags on, its strategic weaknesses in the fields of politics and war are coming out in the open. This is a reflection of the unjustness of the imperialist occupation of Iraq. The US belittles the capacity of the broad masses of the Iraqi people to fight the occupation and will pay dearly for it.

The people of Iraq have all the reason and capacity to drive out the foreign occupying troops. It would be fine for them to unify the scattered armed groups and form a national guerrilla force that can deliver far greater blows on the invader. The situation in Iraq is exceedingly favorable to set up and rapidly strengthen a proletarian party that would lead the war for national liberation by wielding the armed struggle and by unifying all democratic and patriotic classes, sectors and religious sects in Iraq into an anti-colonial united front.

07 September 2003
English Edition

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