[Marxism] Dahr Jamail: US escalates in Fallujah, opposition heats up in Baghdad

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Two important articles. 
Fred

http://dahrjamailiraq.com/resistance-over-fallujah-builds-up-in-baghdad
Resistance over Fallujah Builds Up in Baghdad
by Dahr Jamail 
November 8th, 2004 | Inter Press Service 

BAGHDAD - The anger building up in Baghdad over the imminent attack on
Fallujah is a warning that U.S. forces could start off more than they can
handle.

The sharp increase in attacks on U..S. and allied forces has been only the
most violent form of rising hostility. But it is not an extremist few that
are becoming more and more strongly opposed to the occupation and now a U.S.
assault on Fallujah.

What Iraqi people are saying could be even more worrying to the occupation
forces than the attacks.


"The Fallujans should fight for their city," says Mahmoud Shakir, 80, former
commander of the Iraqi police in Baghdad. "They are not terrorists, and
there has been no proof of foreign fighters in Fallujah. And if there are
Arabs there, they are more accepted than the Americans and coalition forces.
In the name of liberty, they must fight."

Shakir was deeply concerned what the results of the siege might be. "It will
end in a disaster," he said at his son's home at Ramadan breakfast.
"Fallujah will be completely destroyed and the people will be killed because
they are asking for independence and to be rid of the Americans."

Ali al-Mishidani who returned to Iraq after the overthrow of the regime of
Saddam Hussein said at the crowded al-Khulifa'a mosque in Baghdad that "the
Americans did something good by getting rid of Saddam Hussein. I believe
there are terrorists there who are killing Fallujans and the Americans. But
there are also Fallujans there who are fighting for their houses and their
honour, and it is their right to do this."

His views are mild compared to those of many others in Baghdad.

"The people of Fallujah have the right to fight for their city, because if
the Americans are invading their city they have to defend it," said Nisan
al-Samarra'i, a 55 year-old trader in the Karrada district of Baghdad.

Al-Samarra'i said the bombings in Samarra were not related to the U.S.
aggression in Fallujah. "I believe that the fighting in Samarra is because
so many people in Samarra have been killed by the occupiers," he said.
"Their family are fighting against them now because their sons have been
killed by the Americans."

Like many others in Baghdad he does not believe members of Abu Masab
al-Zarqawi's group are working inside Fallujah. Al-Zarqawi is a Jordanian
suspected to have links with al-Qaeda, and involved in several beheadings
and suicide bomb attacks in Iraq.

"There are accusations that al-Zarqawi is there, but nobody can prove this,"
he said. "Some say there are Arabs there fighting - and if that is true, it
is their right to help their brothers in Fallujah to defend their city."

Hamad Abdulla Raziz, an unemployed electrician doing odd jobs at a hotel in
central Baghdad said the U.S.-led coalition fails to see that "we are having
now to fight for our liberation against them."

Many people in Baghdad express concern that the U.S. military operations in
Fallujah are already leading to increasing violence around the country.

Ibrahim Mikhail who drives his car as a taxi now because he is afraid to
join the Iraqi police force believes that if the U.S. military would stay in
their bases there would be less violence.

"Why can't the U.S. Army leave our cities," he said. "If their tanks will
stay off our streets and the soldiers will stop raiding our homes, people
would stop attacking them, especially Fallujans."

U.S. forces say al-Zarqawi is in Fallujah, "but Fallujans and now more
people in Baghdad view the Americans as terrorists," he said.

"An Americans attack on Fallujah will be a disaster," said Haydr Raid, a
22-year-old college student at Baghdad University. "To try to rescue the
people of Fallujah from the Arab mujahideen, it is okay then to kill the
civilians with the fighters?" he asked. "The Americans won't let men out of
the city who want out, so they will kill them with the fighters? Is this
justice?"


http://www.truthout.org/050409J?n
Combat Operations in Fallujah
Dahr Jamail
May 4, 2009

A woman gestures toward the wreckage of a car destroyed in a car bomb
explosion in Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City, Iraq, Wednesday, April
29, 2009. 

    Indicative of the rapidly deteriorating situation in Iraq, on May 1 the
US military reported the death of a Naval petty officer who was killed "on
April 30 while conducting combat operations in Fallujah, Iraq." The
Department of Defense report went on to explain that the sailor "was
deployed with an East Coast based Navy SEAL team." That same day, the
military announced the deaths of two marines "killed while conducting combat
operations against enemy forces here April 30." The dateline for the latter
press release is "AL ANBAR PROVINCE, Iraq." Apparently, all is not well in
Fallujah and al-Anbar province. The US military, having met the fiercest
resistance throughout their occupation of Iraq in these areas, is once again
conducting combat operations there. 

    The fact that the US military has largely hung the Sahwa out to dry,
exposing the 100,000 strong Sunni militia to the ire of the Maliki
government for ongoing assassinations and detentions, has taken the lid off
the volcano that the Sahwa were keeping from erupting. Let us remember - it
was the Sahwa who kept al-Qaeda in Iraq in check, not the US military or the
Iraqi military. As members of the Sahwa continue to leave their security
posts due to lack of pay and being targeted by the Iraqi government, they
are returning to the resistance from which most of them had emerged to join
the militia. 

    Let us also be clear about the fact that the Sahwa allied themselves
with the US military so as to protect themselves from the Shia-dominated
sectarian government of Prime Minister Maliki. 

    I asked a good friend of mine in Baghdad to interview a Sahwa leader in
the Adhamiya district of Baghdad a few days ago. The leader asked to be
identified as Abu Ahmed. He is 40 years old, married, has four children, and
had this to say, "I would like to say that the Iraqi Government, and
especially Mr. Maliki, are continuing to target us. They have been doing
this from the beginning, and they continue to do this against the Sahwa. The
reason is because we are Sunni and the Iraqi government are a sectarian
government."

    Abu Ahmed said he and his fellow Sahwa members support the immediate
withdrawal of all occupation forces "and then we can change our government
by ourselves and build a nationalist government to replace this current
sectarian government."

    He then added, succinctly, "Our purpose is to end the occupation, end
al-Qaeda, and make a new Iraq that is safe."

    Fate, as if to underscore his point, found rivers of blood filling the
streets of Baghdad the very next day. Simultaneous bombings in largely
Shiite districts of the capital city killed more than 51 people. After the
bombings, residents of the areas threw shoes and stones at Iraqi soldiers
who arrived at the scene, blaming the soldiers for failing to protect them.
A resident, in the aftermath of the bombings, expressed his rage to a
reporter while Iraqi soldiers continued shooting at innocent people, "Is
that what we deserve, on top of the bombs, that they shoot at people? Is
this Maliki's government? Instead of helping us evacuate the wounded, they
started shooting at us. This is Maliki's government. Can you hear the
shooting? They're shooting at people. People are lying underneath cars."

    At the end of the day, over 70 Iraqis had died, with at least 116
wounded. Underscoring the sectarian nature of the government, Baghdad
security spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta told reporters, "This series of
bombings was supposed to be carried out on the 28th, the birthday of Saddam
Hussein," referencing the former dictator executed in December 2006.

    Meanwhile, that same day, roadside bombs targeted US patrols in two
areas of Baghdad.

    My Iraqi journalist friend in Baghdad, who interviewed Abu Ahmed,
commented on the aftermath of the bombings that day, "The Iraqi situation is
getting so much worse Mr. Dahr. So many car bombs explode in Baghdad now -
it is daily. All the streets are closed today so the police and army can
search every car, checking everything, and we can't move or work in this
situation at all. And yet, the bombings continue nonstop."

    As the calendar turned to May, April was the deadliest month since
September for US troops, with at least 18 dead, doubling the previous
month's total. April also found the most troops killed in combat in a month
so far this year. April was also the deadliest month for Iraqis in over a
year. 

    In a move strengthening US/Iraqi relations, Brig. Gen. Peter Bayer, the
chief of staff for the US military's daily operations in Iraq, said that a
US military raid in Kut that killed a man and woman, which had ignited
tempers across the country and caused Prime Minister Maliki to demand the
responsible soldiers to be handed over to Iraqi authorities, told reporters
the raid was "lawful and legal," and responded to the question of whether
American soldiers would appear in Iraqi courts with, "No. Absolutely not." 

    So much for Iraqi sovereignty.

    On May 2, two more soldiers were killed in the northern city of Mosul,
while US forces were attacked with roadside bombs in both Basra and
Fallujah. Clearly, resistance against the occupation is once again
nationwide, spanning from Iraq's northernmost and southernmost cities. Now
that the British are pulling out of their area of control in Southern Iraq,
US troops are filling the void - hence, the attack in Basra. Expect these to
increase rapidly, particularly in light of events such as the Kut raid.

    The signs of Iraqi government attacks against Sahwa members show no sign
of abating either, as that day gunmen attacked a Sahwa checkpoint in
Yusufiya, injuring a Sahwa fighter. Meanwhile, Iran was shelling northern
Iraq - lobbing artillery shells into suspected Party of Free Life of
Kurdistan (PJAK) locations there. The PJAK are supported by the US, as they
have been conducting covert destabilization operations in Iran for months
now. The northwestern area of Iraq that borders Turkey was not without
violence either. There, Turkish forces launched an airstrike just hours
after ten Turkish soldiers were killed in what was believed to be a Kurdish
rebel strike in Turkey. Turkish airstrikes in northern Iraq are, however,
nothing new. They've been a weekly or bi-monthly occurrence for several
months running now.

    The meat grinder that is the US occupation of Iraq is picking up speed
once again. Attacks against both Iraqi civilians and US soldiers are
increasing dramatically. At the time of this writing, five soldiers have
been killed in the last four days, over a dozen innocent Iraqis have been
slaughtered, and over a dozen have been wounded. Iraqi government attacks on
the Sahwa continue, al-Qaeda is now operating largely at will, and attacks
on US forces are now happening all over Iraq - including in
Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Iraq. 

    Combat operations in Fallujah. A recent UN report documenting ongoing US
torturing of Iraqis in military detention facilities in Iraq. Roadside bomb
attacks against US forces spanning the entire geography of the country.
Iraqis being slaughtered in numbers not seen since George W. Bush still had
eight months left in his second term. 

    What has changed in Iraq?



 


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