Simon Cunich and Katie Cherrington
After being detained by the Wolf Brigade — an elite police squad controlled by the US-backed Iraqi Interior Ministry — in February 2005, Khalida Zakiya, a 46-year-old woman from Mosul, appeared on Iraqi television saying that she supported an armed anti-occupation group. According to a report released by Amnesty International on March 6 — Beyond Abu Ghraib: detention and torture in Iraq — "she later withdrew this confession and alleged that she had been coerced into making it. She was reportedly whipped with a cable by members of the Wolf Brigade and threatened with sexual abuse."
The Amnesty report cites evidence of widespread torture of detainees held by the US occupation forces and the US-backed Iraqi security forces. Iraqi prisoners have been subjected to electric shocks and beatings with plastic cables. Some claimed that they had their fingernails pulled out.
Extrajudicial executions of anti-occupation resistance fighters, as well as Iraqi civilians who have never even taken up arms, are happening on a massive scale. Death squads operating under the control of the Interior Ministry have been funded and advised by the US military and counterinsurgency experts. In March, the director of the Baghdad morgue reported that more than 7000 people had been killed by Interior Ministry death squads in recent months.
US and Australian supporters of the occupation claim that the presence of the foreign troops is all that is preventing a civil war between Iraq's Shiite majority and Sunni minority. But it is the unwelcome presence of the occupation forces that is promoting conflict. The US is using the Iraqi security forces as proxies to wage a war against opponents of the occupation. The "official" repression by the security forces and US troops is backed by a covert program of assassinations and terror.
But despite brutal repression, opposition to the occupation continues to grow. The overwhelming majority of the Iraqi population wants foreign troops to leave. The London Sunday Telegraph reported in October that a secret poll conducted for the British Ministry of Defence found that 82% of Iraqis are "strongly opposed" to the presence of the occupation forces in their country and that up to 65% of Iraqis support attacks on foreign troops by resistance fighters.
It's little wonder when you consider the terror, poverty and misery that the occupation has imposed on the Iraqi people. A study in the British medical journal The Lancet estimated that more than 100,000 Iraqis died in the 18 months after the invasion from causes directly and indirectly linked to the war.
Acute malnutrition among Iraqi children has almost doubled since March 2003. Some estimates put the level of unemployment as high as 60%, and basic services such as electricity and water are below pre-invasion levels.
A new American century?
It will be up to "future presidents and future governments of Iraq" to decide when to withdraw US forces from Iraq, US President George Bush declared on March 21, voicing the intention of US imperialists to stay in Iraq for an extended period. While Washington claims that it will withdraw its troops as soon as the US-trained Iraqi army is capable of crushing the anti-occupation movement, it is also spending millions of dollars on creating six "enduring" bases in Iraq. A long-term US presence in Iraq is necessary to secure Iraq's oil reserves for the benefit of Western corporations and to help secure US dominance over the strategically important Middle East, the key goals underpinning the 2003 invasion.
Now Washington is threatening Iran, clearly identifying it as the next target for "regime change". While an attack on Iran is not viable politically or militarily for the US, the Bush administration is pressuring the United Nations to declare that Iran's civilian nuclear program (which is legal under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) is an international threat and is aimed at producing an arsenal of nuclear weapons.
Those at the helm of the US empire want the 21st century to be a "new American century" in which extend and consolidate their domination over the rest of the world. The US is leading the global neoliberal drive to further exploit the people and resources of the Third World, and it backs this up with military force.
Stop Bush!
The fight against imperialism is growing around the world, and Resistance is building this struggle here in Australia by being part of the anti-war movement. We organise young people and students against the US-led occupation of Iraq and against Australian participation in it and other imperialist wars, and against a future attack on Iran.
We support Students Against War groups, which are active on a number of campuses around the country. These groups have been holding public forums and film screenings to inform students about the impact of the war on the people of Iraq and organising students to be part of protests calling on the Australian government to withdraw its troops from the Middle East.
Wollongong University Students Association is hosting an anti-war teach-in on May 19, and they are inviting student anti-war activists from across NSW to participate in a discussion on the way forward for the anti-war movement. The teach-in will be able to plan future demonstrations against the occupation, discuss how we are going to organise against any future attack on Iran, and begin preparing a fitting reception for Bush when he visits Australia for the APEC summit next year.
[To find out how to get involved in the anti-war campaign, visit <http://www.resistance.org.au>. Simon Cunich is a global solidarity officer at Sydney University and a Sydney Resistance organiser. Katie Cherrington is the Wollongong Resistance organiser.]
From Green Left Weekly, April 26, 2006.
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