4-16-05, 8:51 am
Twin-track liberation
From Morning Star
GEORGE W Bush's refusal to countenance withdrawal of occupation troops from Iraq until the security situation improves is a classic case of putting the cart before the horse.
The ongoing violence doesn't take place in a vacuum. It erupts as a response to the ongoing occupation.
Not all opponents of the occupation have taken up arms. Followers of Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ended armed confrontations with US troops in Najaf last summer and were fully involved in January's elections, but this did not prevent 300,000 of them from swamping Firdous Square in Baghdad at the weekend insisting that all foreign troops go.
The symbolism of demonstrating in Firdous Square could not be more striking.
It was there that US troops deployed their military bulldozers to tear down the statue of Saddam, having already committed the shocking gaffe of cloaking it in the Stars and Stripes as though to make clear to Iraqis that they were experiencing US occupation rather than the liberation that they had been promised.
While a few dozen Iraqis played their role in the made-for-US-television event, beating the shattered statue with their shoes, most kept their distance.
There was no such estrangement at the weekend, as effigies of war criminals Saddam, Tony Blair and George W Bush were toppled and destroyed by the huge crowd.
Despite efforts made by some sinister groups to sow dissension between Iraq's Sunni and Shi'ite communities, some Sunnis also took part in this giant protest.
It is clear that most of the people who were praised by the British and US pro-war media as heroes for risking their lives to cast their ballots on January 31 did not do so to signify their support for the nefarious plans of the Bush-Blair coalition.
They were pursuing a twin-track approach of ensuring that they were strongly represented in the new assembly while asserting their determination to rid themselves of their occupiers. Withdrawal of Britain's troops is not something that can be put on the back burner. It must be seen as a priority.
The occupiers' grip on western Iraq - the so-called Sunni triangle - is tenuous at best and the occupiers face great difficulty.
US troops are stretched to the limit, forcing the army to compulsorily extend enlistment contracts under what it calls the 'stop loss' programme.
With over 1,500 US troops killed and more than 11,600 wounded in Iraq, recruitment for the National Guard, which is similar to the Territorial Army, has fallen by 40 per cent in response to units being deployed to Iraq. In addition, over 6,000 US troops are listed as deserters. The situation is untenable for the warmongers.
Many sections of Britain's labour movement have prioritised material and moral solidarity with those building civil society, including trade unions, in Iraq.
This is in the best of labour movement traditions, but there must be no truck with those who would link trade union solidarity with support for the occupation.
Civil society is best built in independence, backed by international solidarity not by imperialism's war machines.
