Re: Bob Gould's position on Iraq

[Lueko.Willms@xxxxxxxxxxx (Lueko Willms)]

in reply to
# Subject: Bob Gould's position on Iraq
# From: "Jose G. Perez" <jg_perez@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
# Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 21:48:44 -0400

   While I think that José Perez' insistence on the right to
self-determination for the Iraqi people which also includes the right
to choose their form of struggle for national independence
themselves, is correct and essential, we should not be carried away
to justify and hail each and every act which we might assume is being
performed in the struggle against the occupation. 

   I doubt that one can say of those who e.g. bombed one of the main
water pipelines into Badhdad, "deep in the heart of the Iraqi people
and the Arab nation the seed they are planting will grow, and one day
blossom." 

   It would surely be wrong to apply abstract moral criteria, and in
Bob Gould's two-part article answering José Perez, I could not find
those, but political criteria in how far such acts help to increase
the self-confidence of the working masses, contribute to their
organization (which had been destroyed by the reactionary regime
before), and undermine the credibility of the occupying forces. 
   
   Nobody really knows who placed those bombs, the one destroying the
Jordanian embassy, the Canal Hotel housing the UN offices, and the
one at the Friday prayers in Najaf killing several dozen peoples, it
is also not sure in any way, if these acts are committed by one and
the same forces. 

   I have read in those articles by bourgeois journalists, which have
been forwarded to this mailing list, the speculation that those
forces try to make life even harder for the masses, to "force" the US
occupiers to apply more violence, and thereby inciting the masses to
rise up and disposing of the occupation. 

   But history has shown that it does not work this way; many a
"urban guerilla" group has failed on that road. 

   The bomb in Najaf past Friday, it can clearly be said, has
certainly not contributed to rally the masses behind the bombers, on
the contrary, it has aroused the anger and protest of many people who
took to the streets these days by the thousands or even tens of
thousands to commemorate those killed, including the Shi'ite cleric
who ostensibly was the prime target of the bomb, and who had
collaborated with the US occupiers. 

   One can only hope that the signs which had been visible in those
demonstrations, namely that the armed marshals of the demonstrators
call for the responsability for security being given into Iraqi
hands, and primarily in their own hands, that this leads to a
stronger self-organisation, and that the divisive effects of that
bomb are not so deepgoing as the bourgeois media are speculating. 

   The bomb at the UN offices in Baghdad was probably the most
politically motivated and directed action of that type, but even
there not only foreign "aid workers" and diplomats have been killed,
but also Iraqis who had found a job to earn their living there, and
also Iraqis who just happened to visit the offices for some purpose. 

   I heard e.g. that the wife of this Amir As-Sa'adi, one of the 54
most wanted "dead or alive" Iraqis because of his prominent role in
the Iraqi weapons industry, and scientific advisor to the government,
who turned himself in to the US occupiers in mid April, went to the
UN on that morning to get the UN people to investigate about the fate
of her husband, who against his illusions of being released again
after one or two days, is still being held captive by the US
military. Her car was found near the UN offices, but herself not yet
(that was at least the state of affairs a week ago). 

   This cannot be put on the same plane as the defense of taking and
eventually killing hostages what Marx defended in the case of the
Paris commune and Trotsky in his polemics against Kautsky, since this
part of the victims did not represent in any way the enemy side, but
just happened to be at the wrong place in the wrong moment by
accident. 

   My objective is not to deplore especially those persons and their
deaths, but I just want to voice my scepticism if such kind of
actions really help to polically arm the Iraqi people in their fight
against their oppressors, the US imperialists. 

   
Yours, 
Lüko Willms
/------------------------------------ http://www.mlwerke.de 
Frankfurt/Main, Germany