David Hungerford11 maart 2008 – 15:08

For Iraq!

The fifth anniversary of the occupation of Iraq is an especially appropriate time to look at its full history and the threat to world peace.

Iraq was attacked in 1990-91 because its 1988 victory in the war with Iran left it with conventional military forces equivalent to those of Israel. The strategic balance of the Middle East was changed. All the main imperialist countries joined to crush Iraq.

Iraq nonetheless survived as an independent state. Dominance of the Persian Gulf is essential to US imperialism. The failure to subdue Iraq threatened everything.

By the end of the 1990s the big imperialists were no longer in agreement. Europe was tired of the failed policy of sanctions against Iraq and wanted it ended. The US stubbornly insisted sanctions be continued. Iraq widened the gap by selling oil for euros instead of dollars. In 2003 France and Germany opposed a US/British conquest that would deny them a share of the plunder. France refused to allow UN Security Council support for the invasion; Germany stood fully behind France.

Thus the occupation of Iraq was from the beginning a war to redivide the world in favor of US imperialism and its British ally. Big imperialist rivalries for redivision of the world are the root of world war. The occupation of Iraq threatens world peace as has no war since the end of World War II.

The 2003 threat receded due to the glorious struggle of the Iraqi national resistance. US imperialism was defeated from the day it went in. Iraq has proven once again that the people are more powerful than imperialism.

Nonetheless big power rivalries cannot be removed. Imperialism means war. Big-power tensions are once again on the rise.

In January of this year French President Nicholas Sarkozy visited the Persian Gulf and signed agreements with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to assist them in the development of nuclear power reactors.
The Israeli authorities have repeatedly made clear that an Arab nuclear capability is something with which they cannot and will not live. It would cost them the regional dominance they gain from their Mideast nuclear monopoly. Their US patron cannot just stand by and watch.

In addition the occupation of Iraq has worsened regional problems of every description among Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Lebanon, and Israel, among others.

Only one outcome can end the danger that war in Iraq will spread to regional and world war: the restoration of the country's independence and sovereignty, and the removal of Iraq from the sphere of international contention through the victory of the national resistance.
The cause of the Iraqi people is our cause. We must stand with the national resistance. Our support will help Iraq win.

David Hungerford
activist and writer, USA

Bericht aan de Bevolking is een initiatief van Het beschrijf, in samenwerking met het B/Russell/s Tribunal. Een aantal auteurs van deze teksten treedt ook aan op de Literaire Wake n.a.v. 5 jaar oorlog in Irak, op woensdag 19 maart van 20 u. tot 24 u. in Literatuurhuis Passa Porta, A. Dansaertstraat 46, 1000 Brussel. Zie www.passaporta.be

Link naar het overzicht