Iraq Situation Takes Qualitative Turn

 Harkishan Singh Surjeet

TODAY, the increasingly deteriorating crisis in Iraq is posing a serious question for the whole world to ponder --- whether the US imperialist game of ruling that hapless country, directly or by proxy, can be allowed to succeed? For, today the question is not confined to the future of a single nation. Rather, Iraq is now a laboratory case, where the very fate of the entire world in the coming years or decades is going to be decided.

INHUMAN FACE OF IMPERIALISM

THE reason is simple. As the first attempt at re-colonisation in the post-war era, the continuing US war in Iraq represents the first serious move as part of the US drive to establish its hegemony over the whole world. And the imperialists too know it well. That is why they brought no less than 1,30,000 of troops, armed with most sophisticated weapons, to that country in March last year, and are still trying to retain their control on the occupied nation. In such a situation, if they are forced to quit the country in disgrace, it may well spell an end to their global designs. This explains why they are stooping down to the most barbaric levels to crush the ongoing resistance by force. To them, attacking and bombing even civilian targets and killing innocent citizens is justified, so that the ongoing resistance does not get united and consolidated into an all-Iraq force, which it is threatening to become.      

Needless to say, since the end of Vietnam war and the ignominious exit of US imperialists from that South East Asian country, the Iraq war has most glaringly revealed the inhuman face of imperialism. This was the country where, after the first Gulf war in 1991, the US-UK combine imposed horrible sanctions on the people in the name of a hijacked UN, and those sanctions claimed upward of 1.6 million innocent lives. The horror was that the victims of those sanctions were mostly children, the aged and the pregnant and lactating mothers, whose lives could well have been saved but who were sacrificed at the altar of imperialist lust for the country’s oil resources. The fact remains that, compared to the war itself, these ‘peace-time’ sanctions took lives many times over.

It was therefore no wonder that when the US was readying to launch its second war against Iraq, the world public opinion was much agitated against US designs, and also more organised in giving vent to its sense of revulsion and hatred. As we recall, mighty protest demonstrations had started to take place in various cities around the globe even before the war started, and continued to take place later. Nay, Bush himself faced vigorous protest some months ago when he visited the United Kingdom, the contemptuous lackey of US imperialism in world affairs.

DAMNED LIES GET EXPOSED

THIS too reveals the real face of imperialism. The Bush-Blair duo launched their war against Iraq in the name of eliminating the weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), which Saddam Hussein had allegedly piled up and could use against the US. And that too despite the fact that a UN inspection team had categorically said it did not find any evidence whatsoever of the existence of WMDs in the country! Not only that, the US led occupation forces have failed to find any WMDs in the country, and the damned lies resorted to by Bush and Blair have got exposed.  

Another lame excuse the US proferred to prop up its warmongering was that it wanted to rid the Iraqi people of a dictator called Saddam Hussein. For, even if we believe (for the sake of argument) that Saddam was really a bloodthirsty monster, as the pro-imperialist media were fond of depicting him, it was the sovereign right of Iraqi people to depose him and punish him. The UN charter and international law very clearly state that the people of any country have a sovereign right to decide as to what type of socio-economic system or political regime they would have; no other power has any right to decide it on their behalf. Thus, the US-UK intervention in Iraq, even though in the name of deposing Saddam and bringing democracy (!) to the country, was a blatant violation of the Iraqi people’s sovereignty and their right to self-determination. 

Bush and his cohorts have the temerity to preach to the world the virtues of democracy! But the US launched its war against Iraq and today continues its occupation of that country in utter violation of the world opinion, in utter disregard of the UN system, and trampling underfoot the Iraqi people’s right to decide their own fate. This only reveals the real meaning of their version of democracy.

 RESISTANCE CONSOLIDATES

YET it will be a gross misreading of reality if one thinks that the imperialist lobby can pacify the Iraqi resistance by force. The fact is that since the formal end of the war in May last year, the Iraqi resistance has grown manifold --- quantitatively as well as qualitatively. It has grown quantitatively as many more people have joined it and many more are coming forward to join it with each passing day. At the same time, the resistance is growing qualitatively also, by shedding its sporadic character and taking the shape of a united and consolidated, all-Iraq mass uprising. Also, those now joining it are more determined to fight as many of them have lost their near and dear ones at the hands of occupation forces, and are in no mood to compromise. This phenomenon has become particularly evident in the last few weeks.

But this is what the US ruling circles were apprehending for months and fearing the most, as it spells further disasters for their occupation forces and plans. While allegedly preparing the Iraqis themselves for taking over power in their hands, one of the aims the US top brass has been pursuing was to divide the Iraqi ranks --- as per the pet imperialist formula of “divide and rule.” For months, the imperialist controlled media have been propagating the theory of a deep Shia-Sunni divide in the country and had even succeeded in making many believe their cock and bull stories in this regard. But the ongoing consolidation of Iraqi resistance is making it clear that such a divide existed more in media stories than on the ground. But this also means that if the people of Iraq are not likely to fall in the trap of imperialist propaganda, the imperialist game of divide and rule cannot succeed either. In fact, as The Hindu editorially notes (April 14), the “sectarian differences did not block the Iraqis from uniting behind a common cause.” 

How much this phenomenon will add to the sense of nightmare that has been haunting the imperialist warmongers and their mercenaries in the field, one can easily comprehend.

SENSE OF NIGHTMARE

THIS sense of nightmare finds a reflection in the increase in brutality with which the occupation forces are trying to crush the Iraqi resistance, leading to increasing casualty figures among Iraqi citizens. At the same time, however, casualty figures are mounting on the occupation side also. And not only because of the counter attacks being launched by resistance fighters, but also because of the increasing incidence of suicide by American and other mercenaries. The feeling increasingly gripping their ranks is that, for the sake of their narrow gains, their masters have thrown them into a lose-lose situation from which they are unable to extricate themselves. The number of bodybags reaching the US is increasing, and it is only a matter of time before common Americans rise and shout no to the war.

In sum, the situation is gradually approximating the one that prevailed during the US’s Vietnam war, when millions of American citizens came out into the streets to vociferously demand that their masters must put an end to the war and bring the American troops home. Even though Lindon Johnson and then Richard Nixon had contemplated using nuclear weapons to score a victory in their war against Vietnam, the resistance of Vietnamese freedom fighters and, coupled with it, the outcry of world public opinion did force the US imperialists to effect an exit in ignominy. Today, the world situation is definitely different, as there is no more the Soviet Union that used to be a powerful supporter of resistance fighters and acted as a countervailing force to imperialist designs the world over. Nay, if imperialists dared to launch their war against Iraq, they were definitely encouraged by the Soviet Union’s absence from the global scene. Yet, if they think they would be able to have their way in Iraq and pacify the resistance by force, they are definitely fooling themselves. Scores of analysts the world over have expressed doubt in the US war machine’s efficacy to settle this war by force.

In fact, US warmongers have themselves been realising their helplessness in this regard. And that is why they have been planning to put in place a pliant government by June end. Also, in the last one year they approached a number of countries asking them to send their forces to the occupied Iraq for “policing” job. What they really mean by policing job, however, is that other countries must deploy their forces along the firing line for getting killed, so that Americans could withdraw their own troops to safety. This is exemplary of the typical selfishness on part of imperialist warmongers who think that, by waving in the air their bands of dollar notes, they can make other countries sacrifice their soldiers. Recently, they again repeated their request to the government of India to send our troops to Iraq.

In sum, the latest developments show how badly the US has got isolated in the world affairs and, even at home, the popularity rating of George Bush is sharply falling. It may be that the US may register some victories against the guerrillas and snatch back some of the towns from the latter but, as The Hindu said, “any success will prove to be ephemeral.” On the other hand, the US led alliance is also in a shambles, and Italy, Japan and some other countries are facing mass pressure at home for calling their troops back from the battlefield. Nor is the United Nations in a position to do the job the US wants it to do. The result is that the “superpower is stuck in a desperate situation since it cannot either advance towards its political objectives or retreat from the country it invaded.”

FOR THE SAKE OF DOLLARS

IT is here that we come across the typically pro-imperialist line the government of India (GoI) under the BJP is pursuing. Even after the US launched a war against Iraq, the GoI under Vajpayee went wholehog against the world and Indian public opinion and refused to condemn the US aggression. Then, after days of tussle in parliament and forced by an agitated public opinion outside, it agreed to only “deplore” the aggression instead of condemning it unequivocally.

But the matter did not end there. After the US announced a formal end to the war, the GoI under Vajpayee started itching to send our troops to Iraq in the stated hope that this would enable Indians (in effect, some of the Indians) to get a share in the post-war contracts the Americans would dole out for a ‘reconstruction’ of the war-torn country. It was as if, to the Vajpayee government, the income of a few lakh or a few crore dollars mattered more than the freedom of a country. Fortunately, it was again the pressure of mass opinion in the country that prevented the GoI from pursuing its bootlicking stance any further. This demonstrated how much cut-off the Vajpayee government is from the thinking of Indian masses who well know the value of a country’s independence. 

There is nothing surprising in it, however. For, while the people of India fought against imperialist domination for about two centuries and made innumerable sacrifices in order to wrest their independence, the Vajpayee and company have been conspicuous by their absence from our struggle for independence.

Here, we can recall the behaviour of another, out and out pro-imperialist government, that of the LDP led coalition government of Japan. That government went against the mass sentiments in the country and sent troops to Iraq --- the first time after the war when a Japanese government has sent its troops abroad. The government abused its majority in the Diet (Japanese parliament) to amend an article of the constitution that prohibited the dispatch of Japanese troops abroad. Yet, though this amendment saved the Koizumi government from violating the letter of the country’s constitution, its spirit the regime did violate.  

Incidentally, the Iraqi resistance has taken as hostages 11 of the SDF troops of Japan, and nobody knows what their fate will be. But the thing to note is that the same could well be the fate of Indian troops if the Vajpayee government had had its way and sent our troops to Iraq. For, who likes the presence of an occupation force in his country!

The whole episode reveals the Vajpayee government’s utter servility to imperialism. To make India an adjunct of US hegemonic designs, this government has gone to the extent of dismantling our time-tested foreign policy that was the consensual foreign policy of the whole country. In the past, several governments came and went but none of them even thought of going against our non-aligned foreign policy that so suited our national interests and took India to the heights of glory. Vajpayee himself could not utter a single word against this policy when he was foreign minister in the Janata Party government during 1977-79.

In these columns we have already shown several times how our earlier foreign policy rallied the newly liberated, underdeveloped countries on the platform of the non-aligned movement (NAM) and made India a natural leader of the third world countries. A repetition of all that is not needed here. Suffice it to say that the BJP led regime has thoroughly dismantled that foreign policy, so much so that India’s voice is now no longer heard on international fora on any issues facing the world, and our prestige has gone down. Not to annoy its imperialist masters, the Vajpayee regime has constantly refused to take any steps to revitalise the NAM. The fact is that independent India has never witnessed such an abjectly pro-imperialist regime as the present one, acting like a crawling, spineless creature vis-à-vis imperialism.

The only worry of this government is why Americans have not adopted it as a prodigal son, just as they have adopted Pakistan. Not surprisingly, Bush has openly expressed his wish for a BJP victory at the hustings.

But this brings to the fore one of the important contradictions between the mass of Indian people and the regime they are accursed to live under. As said, having been under foreign domination for about two centuries, the Indians well know the value of a country’s independence and do understand that freedom is indivisible. The way they mobilised support and assistance for the anti-imperialist struggle in Vietnam, for Namibia’s independence, for the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, for the Palestinian struggle for a homeland, and in a host of other cases, still remain golden chapters in our history. The Chinese people still treasure the memory of Dr Dwarkanath Kotnis along with that of Norman Bethune and others.

Will the BJP led regime be able to erase these pages from our history? The fact is that contradictions between the mass of Indians and the present regime in socio-economic, political and foreign policy spheres are getting intensified, and the only way to resolve them is to throw this regime out --- lock, stock and barrel. That our common masses, poor, illiterate and hungry as they may be, will resolve the said contradictions in this very way, is what the world will see not very long since now.