April 23, 2006
After being detained by the Wolf Brigade — an elite
police squad controlled by the US-backed Iraqi Interior Ministry — in
February 2005, Khalida Zakiya, a 46-year-old woman from Mosul, appeared
on Iraqi television saying that she supported an armed anti-occupation
group. According to a report released by Amnesty International on March
6 — Beyond Abu Ghraib: detention and torture in Iraq — "she
later withdrew this confession and alleged that she had been coerced
into making it. She was reportedly whipped with a cable by members of
the Wolf Brigade and threatened with sexual abuse."
The Amnesty report cites evidence of widespread torture of
detainees held by the US occupation forces and the US-backed Iraqi
security forces. Iraqi prisoners have been subjected to electric shocks
and beatings with plastic cables. Some claimed that they had their
fingernails pulled out.
Extrajudicial executions of anti-occupation resistance
fighters, as well as Iraqi civilians who have never even taken up arms,
are happening on a massive scale. Death squads operating under the
control of the Interior Ministry have been funded and advised by the US
military and counterinsurgency experts. In March, the director of the
Baghdad morgue reported that more than 7000 people had been killed by
Interior Ministry death squads in recent months.
US and Australian supporters of the occupation claim that the
presence of the foreign troops is all that is preventing a civil war
between Iraq’s Shiite majority and Sunni minority. But it is the
unwelcome presence of the occupation forces that is promoting conflict.
The US is using the Iraqi security forces as proxies to wage a war
against opponents of the occupation. The "official" repression by the
security forces and US troops is backed by a covert program of
assassinations and terror.
But despite brutal repression, opposition to the occupation
continues to grow. The overwhelming majority of the Iraqi population
wants foreign troops to leave. The London Sunday Telegraph
reported in October that a secret poll conducted for the British
Ministry of Defence found that 82% of Iraqis are "strongly opposed" to
the presence of the occupation forces in their country and that up to
65% of Iraqis support attacks on foreign troops by resistance fighters.
It’s little wonder when you consider the terror, poverty and
misery that the occupation has imposed on the Iraqi people. A study in
the British medical journal The Lancet estimated that more
than 100,000 Iraqis died in the 18 months after the invasion from
causes directly and indirectly linked to the war.
Acute malnutrition among Iraqi children has almost doubled
since March 2003. Some estimates put the level of unemployment as high
as 60%, and basic services such as electricity and water are below
pre-invasion levels.
A new American century?
It will be up to "future presidents and future governments of Iraq"
to decide when to withdraw US forces from Iraq, US President George
Bush declared on March 21, voicing the intention of US imperialists to
stay in Iraq for an extended period. While Washington claims that it
will withdraw its troops as soon as the US-trained Iraqi army is
capable of crushing the anti-occupation movement, it is also spending
millions of dollars on creating six "enduring" bases in Iraq. A
long-term US presence in Iraq is necessary to secure Iraq’s oil
reserves for the benefit of Western corporations and to help secure US
dominance over the strategically important Middle East, the key goals
underpinning the 2003 invasion.
Now Washington is threatening Iran, clearly identifying it as
the next target for "regime change". While an attack on Iran is not
viable politically or militarily for the US, the Bush administration is
pressuring the United Nations to declare that Iran's civilian nuclear
program (which is legal under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) is
an international threat and is aimed at producing an arsenal of nuclear
weapons.
Those at the helm of the US empire want the 21st century to be
a "new American century" in which extend and consolidate their
domination over the rest of the world. The US is leading the global
neoliberal drive to further exploit the people and resources of the
Third World, and it backs this up with military force.
Stop Bush!
The fight against imperialism is growing around the world, and
Resistance is building this struggle here in Australia by being part of
the anti-war movement. We organise young people and students against
the US-led occupation of Iraq and against Australian participation in
it and other imperialist wars, and against a future attack on Iran.
We support Students Against War groups, which are active on a
number of campuses around the country. These groups have been holding
public forums and film screenings to inform students about the impact
of the war on the people of Iraq and organising students to be part of
protests calling on the Australian government to withdraw its troops
from the Middle East.
Wollongong University Students Association is hosting an
anti-war teach-in on May 19, and they are inviting student anti-war
activists from across NSW to participate in a discussion on the way
forward for the anti-war movement. The teach-in will be able to plan
future demonstrations against the occupation, discuss how we are going
to organise against any future attack on Iran, and begin preparing a
fitting reception for Bush when he visits Australia for the APEC summit
next year.
[To find out how to get involved in the anti-war campaign, visit <http://www.resistance.org.au>.
Simon Cunich is a global solidarity officer at Sydney University and a
Sydney Resistance organiser. Katie Cherrington is the Wollongong
Resistance organiser.]
From Green Left Weekly, April 26, 2006.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.
