Re: [Marxism] SWP:"U.S. troops consolidate victory in Fallujah"

[Steve Gabosch <sgabosch@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

11/24/2004 Stan Smith wrote:
"U.S. troops consolidate victory in Fallujah"
  This is the shocking title of latest lead SWP article on the war. In this
long article there is only one sentence mentioning the US slaughter of 800
civilians. But it does go on at great length about the great prowess of the
US Marines.

I think two of essential points the current Militant article (Dec 7) on
Fallujah is trying to make is that the Baathist resistance forces are  a)
losing to the U.S.-led forces and  b) are deeply hated by many Iraqis, which
can be seen by the lack of protests anywhere in the country against the
assault on Fallujah and other areas in central Iraq where Baathist militias
are active, in contrast to even last spring.

The concern that the Militant is cheering for the US imperialists is
unwarranted.  In my reading, this newspaper is being realistic about how
destructive and lethal the U.S. can be, and certainly was just recently
being in Fallujah.  A core idea behind the Militant approach to
reporting on Iraq is that the only way to defeat the imperialists is the
mass mobilization of the working people of Iraq, and the world - in class
struggle forms of politicized struggle.  This entails, in addition to a
realistic assessment of the imperialist invaders, a careful look at the
reactionary forces in Iraq society that stand in the way.

As for the headline about consolidating "victory", this city has been
essentially flattened, with many hundreds of armed resistance fighters, and
many other civilians, slaughtered.  The ability of small groups of militias
to continue to harass the invaders of course is still being reported two
weeks later.  However, it is a small (but persistent) guerilla campaign in
the *context* of a military defeat - a defeat characterized by large caches
of arms captured, most of the fighters dead or escaped, and a largely
destroyed city.  The imperialist advance was not defeated. The US troops did
not retreat, did not turn around and leave - the resistance fighters did.
Fallujah was a victory for imperialism and a loss to the Iraqi working
people and humanity.    Most residents of the city are still evacuated, with
rubble and destroyed water, sewage and power systems to return to - and
years of recovery to undergo from this orgy of death and destruction. This
is certainly another case of imperialism carrying out its horrific military
strategy - in order to take the village - now a good-sized city - they had
to destroy it.  This was no victory in any humanist sense whatsoever - it
was a defeat for humanity.  But it was a military victory for imperialism.

However, the working people of this world, and in this case Iraq, have not
had the last word by a long shot.

In solidarity,
- Steve



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