May 10, 2005

As Bush’s imbroglio in Iraq drags on, inching closer to complete disaster, with every passing day it gets easier to read the news, as spun by the corporate media, or rather it gets easier to read between the lines. For instance, read the following, gleaned from the Associated Press ( http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/May/20050510News019.asp ):

U.S. forces hunting down followers of Iraq’s most wanted terrorist pushed into a lawless region near the Syrian border today after meeting unexpected resistance from insurgents hidden in remote desert outposts along the southern banks of the Euphrates River.

The "most wanted terrorist" is, of course, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but for some reason his name is not mentioned in the news item (this is either an oversight or the editors at the Associated Press feel it is no longer necessary to mention his name, since they have spent months drilling into our impressionable heads a singular "fact," as defined by Bush and the Pentagon—the "insurgency" in Iraq is driven by one man, now that Saddam is in prison, or one of his doubles is in prison, and that man is the phantom monster, mass murderer, beheader, executer of infidels, both Anglo-American and Shia, al-Zarqawi). It stands to reason, since the entire resistance is run by al-Zarqawi, or so we are led to believe, and al-Zarqawi’s "followers" are now trapped in a "lawless region" (conveniently near the Syrian border). However, even though the corporate media does not bother to tell us the whole story, most of Iraq (outside of the Green Zone) is a "lawless region" where the resistance rules and has few problems attacking occupation forces.

Marines fought yesterday against dozens of well-armed insurgents firing at them from balconies, rooftops and sandbagged bunkers in the border town of Obeidi and surrounding villages, the Los Angeles Times reported.

In other words, these "well-armed insurgents" expected the Americans in Obeidi and made preparations for battle, indicating that somebody tipped them off (resistance spies are everywhere in Iraq, considering most Iraqis hate the U.S. military and the occupation of their country and many work directly with the resistance).

As many as 100 militants have been killed since Operation Matador, one of the largest U.S. offensives in Iraq in six months, began Saturday night in Qaim, 200 miles west of Baghdad, the military said.

Translation: the Pentagon has absolutely no idea how many "militants" (read: people who want the United States out of their country and have joined the resistance) are dead—and if they do, they certainly are not reporting the truth to the corporate media and the American people, as was the case in Vietnam (where the Pentagon often doubled body counts). "The return of the body count in assessing U.S. military operations is an ironic development, especially given the criticism the United States military received during the Vietnam war for using the number of enemy dead as a measure of effectiveness," Mackubin T. Owens ( http://www.ashbrook.org/publicat/oped/owens/02/counting.html
) wrote when Bush invaded Afghanistan. "Critics of the body-count approach in Vietnam were generally correct. A reliance on the body count was the result of an overall lack of strategy for fighting the war. It was also the logical consequence of a flawed operational approach—a war of attrition." Obviously, a "war of attrition," if this is indeed the Pentagon’s strategy, is failing big time in Iraq.

Gunmen, meanwhile, kidnapped the governor of Iraq’s western Anbar province today and told his family he would be released when U.S. forces withdraw from Qaim, relatives said. Gov. Raja Nawaf Farhan al-Mahalawi was seized as he drove from Qaim to the provincial capital of Ramadi, his brother, Hammad, said.

The U.S. military cannot even protect its stooges. Maybe they should all migrate to the Green Zone. At least, when the time comes, they will be closer to the evacuation helicopters.

The offensive comes amid a surge of militant attacks across Iraq, often targeting security forces and civilians, since the new government was announced April 28.

In fact, the "offensive" has never ceased, regardless of Bush’s stage managed phony baloney "election" in Iraq. As for the targeting of civilians, the corporate media rarely mentions the fact—established months ago—that Bush and Crew have slaughtered well over 100,000 Iraqis (because the corporate media has dismissed the British medical journal The Lancet’s report out of hand: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0127-23.htm ).

As usual, we are offered no facts or corroborating evidence in regard to these civilians supposedly killed by the resistance. Obviously, civilians are being killed in great numbers, but not only does the Pentagon refuse to release information on these deaths, but they seem to be targeting people who attempt to gather information (see The Mysterious Death of Marla Ruzicka: The US Military has Detailed Statistics on Civilian Casualties, by Michel Chossudovsky: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO504C.html ).

"This is an area [the northern Jazirah Desert near the Syrian border] which we believe has been pretty heavy with foreign insurgents from many different areas—Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Palestine," Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, said late yesterday.

Apparently, the Pentagon wants to keep sending the message, long ago debunked, that foreigners (especially "al-Qaeda" terrorists) are streaming into Iraq. It is also significant that these purported "foreign insurgents" are being discovered on the border of Syria. "The question of foreign fighters crossing Iraqi [borders] has been exaggerated, given that only 24 of the 1000 men captured in Falluja are foreign," noted Syria’s al-Thawra. "Of the more than 1000 men aged between 15 and 55 who were captured in intense fighting in Falluja … just 15 are confirmed foreign fighters, General George Casey, the top US ground commander in Iraq," told al-Jazeera last November ( http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/194BA8A5-2DAF-461A-A1
01-5965D0156D17.htm ).

Lack of evidence of foreign fighters, however, does not prevent the U.S. from claiming they exist anyway. "Despite the relatively small number of foreign nationals in custody, officials believe that non-Iraqis are playing key roles in organizing or financing attacks on U.S. troops and that foreign Muslim militants are behind some of the deadliest suicide bombings," USA Today reported last July ( http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0706-04.htm ).

These "foreign nationals" are epitomized by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a "Jordanian al-Qaeda operative" nobody can find. Naturally, the reason so many non-existent (or possibly invisible) "foreign insurgents" are "streaming" into Iraq is because the border is "fairly porous," according to Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq. In fact, the border is so porous it seems to gobble up these "foreign insurgents" before they reach Iraq.

From the "liberal" L.A. Times ( http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-051005iraq_l
at,0,4514169.story?coll=la-home-headlines ... ):

Marines hope the assault will flush out insurgent fighters who the Marines believe have made the Ramana region —a conglomeration of well-irrigated riverside towns—a haven and training ground for foreign guerrillas. The 2nd Marine Division is responsible for security in Al Anbar province, a desert region the size of South Carolina that runs from Jordan in the south to Syria in the north.

Naturally, this "flushing" will work about as good as it did in Fallujah, even though the U.S. flattened 70 percent of the city. Last month, the U.S confronted increased attacks, resulting in an "almost total lockdown" of Fallujah. "By keeping the city under a little tighter control at this point in time, we can prevent those guys from coming back," Maj. Mark Gurganus told NBC News last month ( http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7503610/ )

"After their hard-fought victory last November, the Marines must make sure they don't lose it now," added NBC, not bothering to mention the fact that in the process of "their hard-fought victory," the U.S. killed at least 800 civilians, according to the Red Cross ( http://www.antiwar.com/jamail/?articleid=3990 ), with a variety of illegal weapons. "The assault by US forces on the Iraqi city of Fallujah was one of the greatest war crimes since the Second World War.

Over the course of nine days, Operation Phantom Fury, involving 10,000 US troops backed by 500 British soldiers, reduced the city, once famed for its 120 mosques and modern infrastructure, to ruins," writes Harvey Thompson. ( http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/jan2005/fall-20j.shtml ). "To get into Fallujah, it is necessary to apply for a special Identity Card from the American military. Most returning Fallujans find this a deeply humiliating experience; being fingerprinted by an American soldier just in order to go home is acutely embarrassing." Even with this level of military state police security, the resistance is fast at work in Fallujah, as should be expected, at least outside the parameters of Bushzarro world.

And so it will be with Operation Matador, the "raiding [of] desert outposts and safe houses [in Obeidi, Rommana, and Karabilah] in the hunt for the Jordanian militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," as the Guardian puts it ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1480752,00.html ). "The enemy honestly felt that they had a sense of security up there. It had been a safe haven, and a lot of folks up there were former Ba’athists," said Colonel Bob Chase, chief of operations for the 2nd Marine division. Not long ago, the Marines were saying the same thing about Fallujah.

According to the United States, the resistance is comprised strictly of "former Ba’athists," criminals, opportunists, and foreigners, such as the mythical al-Zarqawi. In fact, the resistance is, increasingly, comprised of average Iraqis, many of them aggrieved and outraged relatives of the dead (100,000 and counting) who are taking matters into their own hands and attempting to get rid of Bush and his soldiers. It only makes sense that the former Iraqi military (i.e., the Ba’athists) would play an important role in this effort. It is, of course, absurd to claim all the trouble for the U.S stems from Ba’athists and dead-enders. It is, as well, an avoidance of reality, one that will cost Bush dearly.