June 14, 2003
Postwar War
The US launched an offensive using 4,000 troops, helicopter gunships, patrol boats and jet fighters in Iraq where war was allegedly "won" and the country was "liberated." (See World Socialist Web Site.)The "free" Iraqis are now prohibited from "gatherings, pronouncements or publications" that call for opposition to the US occupation or the return to power of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party. The American media refers to the resistance as "Saddam loyalists," as it used to refer to "communists" or "extreme nationalists" to refer to whoever opposed US occupation and the extraction of a country's resources.
But it is not loyalty to the tyrant Saddam that fuels such opposition in the face of overwhelming power. It is the deep-seated and resilient drive for independence from domination that cannot ever be completely suppressed. It appears that Bush declared victory a little too soon.
In Tolstoy's War and Peace the Russian General Kutuzov abandoned Moscow to the advancing armies of Napoleon. When the French took over the city, they didn't know what to do with it. Their victory celebrations were premature. When winter came, they had no way to sustain themselves and were driven away in defeat. Bush and company gloated over their victory over Iraq, but Americans continue to die, resources continue be wasted in trying to maintain the ill-conceived occupation.
Elsewhere in this mad mad world:
The "The fabric of lies the Bush administration wove to hoodwink the American public into supporting the war on Iraq is starting to unravel," says John David Rose. For a glimpse into the twisted mind of Bill O'Reilly, see "The BuzzFlash Interview with Al Franken". The poor, pitiful Democrats are now squabbling among themselves over whether to challenge Bush on the fact that he declared unequivocably that he was attacking Iraq because of WMDs, which did not exist. Some are afraid to challenge him on it because they think it will backfire on them because his strongest political card has been the perception that he is a great commander in chief. Since the media don't challenge the obvious absurdity of the proposition and most of the Democrats are too chicken to confront it, there is nothing to alert the population to the fact that it just isn't true. See New York Times. Ted Rall says, "They Impeach Liars, Don't They?". The Lexington Institute estimates 15,000-20,000 Iraqi troops killed based on a trumped up justification of the Bush administration, tens of thousands of men trying desperately to defend their broken-down country against an attack by the world's superpower. Add to that over 3,000 civilian deaths and countless injuries and destroyed lives. The Bush cronies stated unequivocably that they had evidence that massive stockpiles of weapons existed that could be used for an attack on the US any time, and it is clear it was all lies. According to Iraq Body Count (IBC), a volunteer group of British and US academics and researchers, compiled statistics on civilian casualties from media reports indicate that between 5,000 and 7,000 civilians died in the Iraq invasion. See The Guardian.