February 23, 2006
At the
outset of the Occupation, it was clear that the U.S. would rule Iraq by
breaking the country into mini states or regions and dividing the Iraqi
population on ethnic and sectarian lines. The Occupation-orchestrated
violence between Iraqis was meant to provide a pretext for the
long-term occupation of Iraq, and direct Iraqis anger away from the
brutality and violence of the Occupation.
While on his recent unannounced (secretly sneak in)
visit to Baghdad, Jack Straw, the British Foreign Secretary echoed the
comment of the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq. Straw said; "we are keen to see
these two departments [defence and interior] in the hands of competent
people, probably technocrats", some one like Ahmed Chalabi or Iyad
Allawi. The comment had nothing to do with stopping the violence in
Iraqi but much to do with the exercise of total US control on the
Iraqi army and police. The latter could then
be used against opponents of the Occupation. Indeed, those
who are involved in violence against Iraqis are working hand-in-glove
with the occupying forces. Jack Straw is in Iraq to perpetuate more
violence and more bloodshed.
It started with the deliberate destruction and
dismantling of the Iraqi State, and the appointment on July 13, 2003 of
the so-called Iraq Governing Council by U.S. Proconsul L. Paul Bremer.
The appointees – mostly expatriate quislings – were deliberately chosen
and identified according to ethnic and sectarian criteria. They
were encouraged and promoted to compete for power and positions.
Moreover, Paul Bremer initiated the criminal process of
"De-Baathification", which implied the liquidation of anyone associated
with the Ba’ath Party as well as anyone with anti-Occupation
nationalist views. "De-Baathification" is simply a murderous tool for
inciting violence and destroying Iraqi society.
To cement these divisions within Iraqi society, the
U.S. and its allies staged illegitimate and fraudulent elections. The
latter were designed to establish sectarianism – not 'democracy’ – as
well as legitimise the Occupation. Iraqis were promoted and encouraged
to vote based on their religious and ethnic affiliations. Both the
electoral system and the methods of voter mobilization applied by major
players were meant to fan the flames of sectarianism rather than
contribute to national unity and liberation. There were no candidates
or political parties with political ideologies, just religious and
ethnic slates. In addition, the U.S.-drafted Constitution was there to
cement and legitimise these various divisions. One wonders why Britain
and the U.S. do not have the same 'democratic’ system at home.
Another U.S. trigger for civil strife and security
chaos in Iraq was the deliberate and criminal act of dissolving the
Iraqi army and security forces and replacing them with ethnic and
sectarian-based militias. U.S.-trained militia, Iranian-trained militia
and Israeli-trained Kurdish Peshmerga form the bulk of the new
Iraqi army and police. Their lack of loyalty to the Iraqi nation
as well as the rivalries and hostilities between these various militia
ultimately serve the interests of U.S. forces. These
paramilitary groups are deployed to fight their Iraqi brothers
belonging to different ethnic areas. This process thereby served to
create ethnic tension and division. Together with U.S. forces, the Peshmerga
militia continue to perform arbitrary arrests, they are involved in
brutal treatment of civilians, violations of residents’ rights and the
theft of properties. They are responsible for acts of deliberate
ethnic cleansing in the regions of Tel Afar, Kirkuk and Mosul. It is
all part of a U.S. policy of creating sectarian violence which
eventually will lead to "civil war" and circumstances which
will be used to justify the ongoing Occupation.
Furthermore, death squads
trained and armed by the Occupation forces are torturing and murdering
innocent Iraqis, including prominent Iraqi politicians, nationalist
leaders, Iraqi academics and professionals. Even Iraqis who
participated in the 1980s war to defend Iraq against the Iran are being
targeted. The thugs are eliminating all those who are opposed to the
Occupation.
This deliberate violence, which has swept Iraq since the invasion, has largely contributed to the disintegration
of Iraqi society. This murderous campaign is based on the "El Salvador
Option" – a U.S-created and financed "civil war" in El Salvador in the
1980s. The El Salvador Option was replicated in Iraq by John
Negroponte. It has the full approval of the White House. Its aim is to
terrorise the Iraqi population and enforce the Occupation.
Thousands of innocent Iraqis have been murdered in cold blood. A report by an Iraqi human rights group, Monitoring Net of Human Rights in Iraq noted that:
"Iraqi
police sources revealed that till the end of March 2004 more than 1,000
Iraqi scientists were shot. A report, which was previously published by
the U.S. State Department, confirmed the killing of 350 scientists
specialized in nuclear science and 200 professors".
After the recent criminal attack on the Askariyah
shrine in Samarra – which has never been attacked for centuries –, all
Iraqis without exception have condemned the attack. "This is a
terrorist act that is aimed to fan a sectarian strife among Iraqis",
said Sheikh Ahmed Daye, member of the Sunni Association of Muslim
Scholars. The Occupation-appointed president Jalal Talabani said: "We
are facing a major conspiracy that is targeting Iraq's unity. We should
all stand hand in hand to prevent the danger of a civil war". Others in
the puppet government have pointed the finger at the U.S. Ambassador in
Baghdad for inciting the violence and for interfering in Iraqi
political and domestic affairs. Thousands of ordinary Iraqis took to
the streets throughout Iraq denouncing the U.S. and Israel.
Samarra is like Fallujah. U.S. forces have attacked
the Resistance city several times, and Donald Rumsfeld has threatened
the city with destruction unless it surrenders. Iraqis believe that the
attack is a pretext for the U.S. forces to invade the city. The attack
was not something new; similar attacks were perpetuated against other
Iraqi cities in the past. These attacks were well-orchestrated to
provoke one group of Iraqis against the other, and bring in U.S. forces
as "peace brokers".
Immediately after the attack on the
Askariyah shrine, violence erupted in several localities in Iraq. Only
the U.S. and Britain stand to benefit from the violence and bloodshed.
Iraqi sources
argue that U.S. and British forces and their collaborators are behind
every major sectarian killing and kidnapping in the country. After
every act of killing of civilians, a specific Iraqi community is
deliberately blamed for the violence. "[W]e have widespread evidence
that the outside forces are attempting to instigate a civil war here
and Iraqis are conscious of that and have made determined effort not to
respond to it", said Dr. Saad Jawad, a political scientist at Baghdad
University.
The arrest by Iraqi Police last September of two
British undercover soldiers identified as "SAS elite special forces"
and disguised as Arabs planning to detonate explosives-packed car in
the centre of Basra was a case of Western perpetuated terrorism.
Bush
and Blair have often used the pretext of preventing "civil war" to
counter Iraqi demands for troops' withdrawal. It is the old colonial
cliché: The more the natives are divided, the easier to rule them and
exploit them.
These diviisions are not internal. We are not
dealing with "an internal problem": it is a Western-created
problem. The war on Iraq is a act of aggression responsible for the
death of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women and
children. It consitutes a war crime committed to enhance U.S.-Israel
domination of the Middle East and seize control of Iraq’s oil reserves.
The sectarian violence in Iraq has been
deliberately created by the U.S. and Britain. Iraqis have
overwhelmingly rejected the presence of foreign occupying forces. The
only way to end the violence is to respect the wishes of the Iraqi
people by implementing a full and immediate withdrawal of foreign
forces from Iraq.
Global Research Contributing Editor Ghali Hassan lives in Perth, Western Australia.