[Marxism] Iraq and the transition to sovereignty:

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(Earlier in the year, Washington moved
to invade Fallujah, but then pulled back.
Now it is threatening to Fallujah again.
Virtually every day here in Cuba, the
electronic and print media report on the
activities of the Iraqi resistance and
the growing numbers of US casualties as
Washington tries to deepen its occupation.

(Here are excerpts from a report by the
former Cuban ambassador to Iraq on his
observations after a trip back to the
region a few months ago. You can read
the entire report, and a preceding one
which appeard on the website of Cuba
Socialista, the theoretical magazine
edited by the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of Cuba, at this URL:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs007.html 
=========================================

Iraq and the transition to sovereignty: 
The lies continue
by Ernesto Gómez Abascal
Former Cuban ambassador to Iraq

June/2004     

http://www.cubasocialista.cu/texto/cs0073.htm 



The fundamental characteristic of the war at the moment is
that the occupiers are on the the defensive and the
Resistance is more and more organized and effective and is
the one that decides when and where to act. The occupation
is precarious and where the American forces or its allies
are not present, which is most of the country, there is no
authority or the authority is that of the Resistance. It is
evident that the forces of the occupation have been forced
to withdraw, having lost the battles of Fallujah, Ramadi,
Nayef, Kerbala, Kufa, Sadr City in Bagdad and other places
that they don?t tell us about. We can suppose that are many
liberated zones in Iraq where the Resistance exerts
control.

The main freeway between Bagdad and the Jordanian border, a
stretch of about 600 kms., is a daily scene of operations
by the Resistance, which controls it by sections and
frequently destroys the provisions that supply the armies
of occupation. Something similar happens with the other
important route, the no. 8, that begins at the Kuwaiti
border in the south.

The United States and their allies in the war thought that
with the occupation of the country they could quickly
create a very lucrative business with petroleum and the
reconstruction and use it to repay the expenses of the war
and to make huge profits. It was an operation planned as a
great investment whose recovery, immediate and abundant,
was considered a certainty. This, which is not spoken of as
much, is perhaps what is most causing them to feel that
there is a crisis.

Before the war, the export capacity of Iraqi crude, which
had deteriorated considerably because of the 10 year
blockade, reached at the most 2.8 million barrels a day.
The average was lower, but since the occupation, they have
not reached even half that and at times, like in the last
weeks, it has been reduced to around 500 thousand barrels.

The main pipeline, which goes through Turkey to the port of
Ceyhan, has been paralyzed most of the time due to sabotage
and the pipelines that go south towards the Gulf have also
undergone frequent damage. The Resistance has prioritized
these vulnerable targets.

The actions against the technicians employed by the huge
corporations of the reconstruction - many of whom have left
- and the general insecurity that exists in the country is
creating unforeseen problems for the occupiers? plans to
gain economic possession of other important resources. Far
from obtaining great profits, the expenses of the war are
immense and continue to grow.

In the political sphere, the resistance to the occupation
is very generalized, even among sectors that apparently do
not maintain a belligerent attitude. The United States even
distrusts, and with reason, the Iraqis who are part of the
institutions created by Washington. Its great dilemma is
that it does not have base of support within the
population.

Approximately two months ago the Iraqi National
Constitutional Congress was publicly celebrated in Bagdad,
with more than 500 delegates representing political, social
and religious organizations from all over the country.
Among the participants were nationalistic Arabs and Kurds,
Socialists, patriots of various stripe, Sunni, Shiite and
Christian, as well as members of a split of the Communist
Party called ?blocks?. The Shiite clergyman Moqtada Sadr,
sent a message of greetings.

All to them proclaimed themselves against the foreign
occupation in what could be considered a kind of broad
front that could play a positive role of unity and
resistance in the future. The celebration of this event
also gives an idea of what little control the North
American government exerts in the Middle Eastern country.

The latest manipulative lie of the empire, spread once
again with insistence in the past few days by the major
media, is to try to identify the patriotic Resistance with
the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. Washington wants to
show that it was correct to attack Iraq because of the
connections with terrorists who attacked the Twin Towers on
September 11 although those connections were denied
recently by the American Governmental Commission that
investigated that event.

The clumsy attempt to clean up these big lies has a lot to
do with the election process in November and the
aspirations of George W. Bush to be reelected and prolong
the power of the neo-fascist and pro-Zionist nucleus that
surrounds him.

The possibility should not be exclude that, in order to
support this latest vile trick, groups of American and
Israeli Special Forces are acting in Iraq, organizing
terrorist actions against the civilian populace and certain
religious sectors, to promote divisions, internal fights
and conflicts in order to create rejection of the
resistance and to prevent the consolidation of national
unity against occupation. Criminal actions that point in
this direction and correspond to this logic are happening.

Lying as a policy is a characteristic of fascism. To
denounce it without rest is our duty.

http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs007.html



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