Editorial:
Invaders, get out of Iraq!

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

Employing superior weaponry, the US relentlessly trampled on Iraqi sovereignty and independence. The truth about the brutal aggression is being glossed over with the slogan of "Iraqi freedom".

By the third week of the war, thousands of Iraqi civilians, aside from soldiers, had been killed by the cowardly and merciless bombing and strafing perpetrated by the aggressors. In Baghdad alone, over 100 wounded patients are brought to hospitals every hour.

The more prominent cases involve the shooting of innocents at checkpoints, coercion, forced searches of homes and arbitrary arrests of men.

The destruction of markets, hospitals, buildings, roads, airports, mass media and communications installations and other vital civilian infrastructure has also been staggering.

Food and water shortages prevail in occupied cities. The invaders purposely destroyed or shut off food and water supplies, exacerbating the people's plight.

Contrary to the invaders' earlier assumptions that the occupation would be quick and easy, the US and UK forces have encountered many setbacks and obstacles.

Despite their inferior weapons which seemed like mere stones in the face of the aggressors' high tech firepower, the Iraqi people demonstrated commendable patriotic resistance�both through armed struggle and mass protests.

The invaders are sure to encounter stiffer resistance from the Iraqis. The invasion grows increasingly more difficult each day, not only due to attacks from Iraqi regular and irregular forces and the Iraqis' demonstration of "people power," but also due to mounting diplomatic and political pressure against the occupation.

The US and the UK may manage to secure their armed presence in the cities, control the symbols of authority of the Saddam Hussein regime, and establish a new puppet polical authority, but they will surely face more difficulties in the future.

The world bore witness to the unjustness, immorality and illegality of the US war on Iraq; the imperialist greed behind it; the lies woven by the US to justify the war; and the extent of the killings and destruction the war has wrought upon Iraq.

This early, the US is already reaping the unprecedented fury of Iraqis, Arabs, Muslims and the peoples of the world. Opposition to the occupation is gaining ground as well as the demand for the immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

The people in the Middle East are greatly outraged by the US. Arab and Muslim unity against the US-Israel conspiracy against Palestine has been further strengthened and broadened by their unity against the US and UK's attack on Iraq. Many Arabs from Syria, Egypt, Libya, Jordan, Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries have signified their intention to help Iraq in its fight against the aggression. A number of them are already in Iraq.

The predatory arrogation of all reconstruction contracts by US companies is an outrage. The seizure by the US of $1.9 billion from US bank accounts owned by the Iraqi government, businessmen and other Iraqi citizens was likewise supposedly done for the re-construction of Iraq. The US is gobbling up all the spoils of war with such avarice that even the UK, its main ally in the war, is worried about ending up with mere crumbs.

The US attack on Iraq has pushed to the hilt the contradictions between the peoples of majority of the world's countries and the leading imperialist power.

The US' ultra-unilateralism has ridden roughshod over its old system of dealing with France, Russia, Germany, China, the Arab countries and other countries that have interests in Iraq and the Middle East. It has exacerbated inter-imperialist contradictions as well as contradictions between the superpower and the rest of the world.

It is currently changing the standards of international relations. The US brazenly ignored the United Nations when it attacked Iraq, rendering the international body inutile and reducing its role to that of cleaning up the mess left by the sole superpower. Even the NATO has lost its relevance and has become a mere coordinator of "humanitarian assistance".

On the other hand, it is of great significance that the Non-Aligned Movement has been revived and the Arab League has taken a stand against US aggression and unilateralism. This will certainly lead to further world disorder.

Not a day passes without antiwar demonstrations being held in different parts of the world, including the US and its main allies. The demonstrations equal, and in many places surpass, the gigantic protest actions against the US aggression in Vietnam in 1965-75. The war in Iraq has reinvigorated the world anti-imperialist movement.

The struggle to expel the invading forces must immediately be intensified.

The current worsening conditions of crisis, repression and war are fertile grounds for the advance of the struggle for national liberation, democracy and socialism the world over.

07 April 2003
English Edition

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