The war against Iraq has failed in all its stated aims. Iraq is not democratic, not stable, not safe, not at peace and not independent. Prime Minister Allawi has imposed martial law and admitted that the elections scheduled for January will be delayed. His government has less popular support than Saddam had. Five thousand detainees held without charge or trial are still being humiliated, abused, tortured and murdered. The war of national resistance against the occupiers grows daily.
Outside Iraq, Bush's re-election is uncertain. Blair is a busted flush. Israel continues to attack the illegally occupied territories.
Independence?
How can Iraq be independent when there are approximately 163,000 coalition forces in there (141,000 US and 22,000 from other countries), plus an estimated 20,000 foreign mercenaries? As the Diplomatic Editor of the Daily Telegraph reported, a senior British official put it delicately: the Iraqi government will be fully sovereign, but in practice it will not exercise all its sovereign functions.
The war and occupation have caused the deaths of at least 12,721 Iraqi civilians, possibly as many as 14,751 (15 September, www.iraqbodycount.net). In April alone, US forces killed 4,000 people. All we have are estimates, since the US military do not count Iraqi dead, only American dead. To justify the aggression, Blair said that 400,000 bodies had been found in mass graves. Downing Street later retracted this claim - 5,000 bodies have been found so far.
We know what happens when aggressors define their actions as exceptional, beyond the normal rules of war. Hitler so defined his illegal war of aggression on the Soviet Union: by deliberately rejecting the Geneva Conventions, he opened the way to the subsequent war crimes - the massacres of civilians, the destruction of homes and goods, the humiliation, including forcible shaving, abuse, torture and murder of POWs and detainees.
 |
| Going nowhere: US occupation of Iraq has already reached the dead end |
Now Britain's Court of Appeal makes the appalling decision that statements made under torture elsewhere in the world can count as evidence in British courts.
The Pentagon estimates that US and British forces used 1,100 to 2,200 tons of depleted uranium weaponry during the March 2003 attack. Many scientists blame the far smaller amount of this toxic and radioactive metal used in the Persian Gulf War for illnesses among US soldiers, as well as for a sevenfold increase in child birth defects in Basra in Southern Iraq.
Iraq used to be free of al-Qaeda terrorism - now it is not. The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee concluded on 29 July that Iraq has become a battleground for al-Qaeda, with appalling consequences for the Iraqi people.
Terrorism
Worldwide, terrorism has increased, not decreased. The US State Department has issued a corrected edition of its report Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003. The original version, released on 29 April, indicated a drop in total terror incidents and overall casualties. The corrected report showed an increase from 2002, a larger increase in significant incidents, and a sharp rise in the numbers injured in terror attacks. A former CIA analyst and State Department official has documented 390 deaths and 1,892 injuries due to terrorist attacks in 2003. In addition, there were 98 suicide attacks around the world in 2003, more than any other recent year.
Indeed, Congress has already approved $126.1 billion of military spending in Iraq and Bush has requested another $25 billion - a total of $151.1 billion this year.
US and British oil companies stand to make vast profits out of Iraq - estimates range from $12 billion to $18 billion a year. Oil output has fallen but oil prices continue to rise, up by a third since December, to a new record of $47 a barrel. We were told that the war will drive down oil prices.
Most of Iraq's reconstruction has been contracted out to US firms, rather than to experienced Iraqi firms. Top contractor Halliburton (Cheney's company) is being investigated for charging $160 million for meals that were never served to troops and $61 million in cost overruns on fuel deliveries. Halliburton employees also took $6 million in kickbacks from subcontractors, while other employees have reported extensive waste, including the abandonment of trucks worth $85,000 because they had flat tyres.
War illegal - Annan
It's official: Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, has said that the war on Iraq was illegal. Below are extracts from an interview that he gave to Owen Bennett-Jones for BBC World Service at UN headquarters in New York on 16 September:
Q: Are you bothered that the US is becoming an unrestrainable, unilateral superpower?
A: Well, I think over the last year, we've all gone through lots of painful lessons. I'm talking about since the war in Iraq. I think there have been lessons for the US and there have been lessons for the UN and other member states and I think in the end everybody is concluding that it is best to work together with our allies and through the UN to deal with some of these issues. And I hope we do not see another Iraq-type operation for a long time.
Q: Done without UN approval - or without clearer UN approval?
A: Without UN approval and much broader support from the international community.
Q: I wanted to ask you that - do you think that the resolution that was passed on Iraq before the war did actually give legal authority to do what was done?
A: Well, I'm one of those who believe that there should have been a second resolution, because the Security Council indicated that if Iraq did not comply there will be consequences. But then it was up to the Security Council to approve or determine what those consequences should be.
Q: So you don't think there was legal authority for the war?
A: I have stated clearly that it was not in conformity with the Security Council - with the UN Charter.
Q: It was illegal?
A: Yes, if you wish.
Q: It was illegal?
A: Yes, I have indicated it is not in conformity with the UN Charter, from our point of view, and from the Charter point of view it was illegal.
Annan also warned there could not be credible elections if the security conditions continue as they are now.
|
National resistance
American military officials acknowledge that, contrary to US government claims, most of the insurgents are secular, nationalist Iraqis angered by the presence of foreign troops, who want to get them out of Iraq. There are far more insurgents than previously thought, possibly as many as 20,000, with enough popular support to ensure that they cannot be defeated.
Civilian analysts agree, pointing out that US officials have long overstressed the roles of foreign fighters and Muslim extremists in efforts to link the insurgency to the war on terror. Too much US analysis is fixated on terms like jihadist, just as it almost mindlessly tries to tie everything to bin Laden, says US analyst Anthony Cordesman. Every public opinion poll in Iraq supports the nationalist character of what is happening.
Polls show that 86% of Iraqis want the US forces out, as soon as an Iraqi government is in place. Yet news bulletins and newspapers in Britain and the USA routinely describe only the US puppet troops as Iraqi, never the national resistance. Empire breeds resistance, which generates further repression, until victory by the forces of national liberation ends the cycle.
Blair lies
The Joint Intelligence Committee specifically told the Prime Minister on 15 March 2002: "Intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles programmes is sporadic and patchy." On 21 August 2002 it reminded him: "We know little about Iraq's chemical and biological weapons work since late 1998". On 9 September 2002 it reiterated, "Intelligence remains limited."
Yet in his foreword to the September dossier, the Prime Minister wrote, "The assessed intelligence has established beyond doubt that Saddam has continued to produce chemical and biological weapons."
And on 24 September he told the House of Commons, "The intelligence picture is one accumulated over the last four years. It is extensive, detailed and authoritative."
But the Speaker of the House of Commons doesn't see these as lies!