RW ONLINE: Iraq: In the Crosshairs of an Unjust War\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nPeople of Iraq\r\nIn the Crosshairs of an Unjust War\r\n<\/p>
Revolutionary Worker #1189, February 2, 2003<\/i>, posted at rwor.org<\/p>\r\n
Powerful marches have sent tremors through the powerstructures and big power \r\nalliances of the world. Cities around the world have been packed with rivers of \r\npeople--standing up against powerful warmakers and their media-flood of \r\nlies.<\/p>\r\n
Those seeking to recast the world in their hideous image and interests--with \r\nall their threats, tanks and bombers--are facing a world full of people who want \r\na different future.<\/p>\r\n
The Revolutionary Worker <\/i>would like to send out a salute to all the \r\nbrave resistors--the tireless organizers, the militant new fighters from the \r\nschools and streets, the millions of people from all walks of life who just \r\ncan't stand by and watch this unjust and illegitimate war go down.<\/p>\r\n
The contrast is so sharp: Debate rages broadly among the people of the \r\nworld--over this war and the future of our world--and millions have taken a \r\nstand to say \"not in our name.\"<\/p>\r\n
Meanwhile the leading governments of this \"coalition of the willing\" have \r\nmade a point of not listening--rejecting the views of the people--and pressing \r\nfor war. And on the sealed invasion zones of Kuwait, soldiers are told that they \r\nare \"doing their duty\" by \"doing their jobs.\"<\/p>\r\n
U.S. press reports say three-quarters of the U.S. soldiers in frontline units \r\nare 18-and 19-year-olds--who know little about combat and even less about the \r\ntrue reasons they have been sent overseas. Their forward bases within Kuwait are \r\nnamed New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania--the states where the dead of 9\/11 \r\nlived. In other words, these troops are told they are preparing a war of \r\npay-back and defense. Their commanders insist that this war is about \"liberating \r\nthe people of Iraq\" and bringing \"safety\" to the people of the U.S.<\/p>\r\n
A look at the plans for this conquest, a look at how the people of Iraq are \r\ntargeted by this U.S. invasion force, reveals the truth...and the war that must \r\nbe stopped.<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
The Forces for an Unjust War<\/p>\r\n
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The Pentagon now says it has enough force in place to launch war.<\/p>\r\n
By early March, the U.S. force is expected to top 200,000, plus 31,000 \r\nBritish and 2,000 Australian troops. Dozens of warships in six different \r\naircraft carrier groups plus many hundreds of aircraft and cruise missiles are \r\nwaiting in place.<\/p>\r\n
Under UN pressure, the Iraqi antiaircraft batteries and radars have been \r\nsilenced. The sky is wide open for the invaders. Spy planes buzz \r\noverhead--American U2's, and their Global Hawk and Predator drones. They have \r\nbeen joined by French Mirage IV and Russian Antonov-30B spy planes, plus \r\nsurveillance drones from Germany.<\/p>\r\n
And the air war has already started. U.S. bombers have made repeated raids \r\naround the southern Iraqi city of Basra. U.S. commandos have already landed in \r\nthe Kurdish areas of northern Iraq to seize and prepare landing zones for \r\nairborne troops.<\/p>\r\n
Meanwhile the U.S. is bringing in troops from reactionary Gulf state \r\ndictatorships to prop up the Kuwaiti monarchy in case future events and the \r\nmasses of people spin out of control.<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
Visions of an Unjust War<\/p>\r\n
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The war plan in place envisions a massive wave of bombing, then rapid thrusts \r\nof armor to seize key locations, then the imposition of military occupation.<\/p>\r\n
Iraq's centers, and especially the capital Baghdad, are targeted for an \r\naerial war called \"Shock and Awe.\" In two days of unprecedented bombardment over \r\n700 cruise missiles will rain down--intended to assassinate the Iraqi government \r\nand army, while it stuns the population into submission. Warplanners say \"no \r\nplace in Baghdad will be safe\" as they \"take down the city.\" With open \r\nbarbarism, the U.S. military says they will obliterate the town of Tikrit, where \r\nmany of the relatives of Iraqi government officials live.<\/p>\r\n
The U.S. military plans to test new bombs. One emits a massive \r\n\"electromagnetic pulse\" to shut down electronics --including military centers, \r\nbut also hospital equipment and even the pacemakers for human hearts. The new \r\n\"thermobaric bomb\" ignites a huge cloud of fuel inside tunnels and buildings and \r\nkills with a massive concussion wave. Another new bomb is called Big Blu--a \r\n30,000-pound bomb intended to kill and incapacitate people for miles. U.S. \r\nwarplanners openly discuss using nuclear EPW's (earth penetrating weapons) in \r\nthe heart of Baghdad to kill the Iraqi leadership.<\/p>\r\n
During these bombings, the U.S. command expects to send rapidly moving \r\ncolumns of troops from Kuwait in the south and from high-priced Turkish bases in \r\nthe north. Massive airpower will be called in to scorch the earth in front of \r\nthem--killing everything in their path. The warplanners call the destination \r\n\"Fortress Baghdad,\" because they are prepared to turn this capital city of four \r\nmillion people into a \"killing zone.\"<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
A People in the Crosshairs<\/p>\r\n
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Estimates of civilian Iraqi casualties--both dead and wounded--vary from tens \r\nto hundreds of thousands. A UN task force suggested that war will almost \r\ncertainly halt Iraq's oil production, shatter the country's electric grid, and \r\nthe networks for distributing food. It predicted diseases \"of pandemic \r\nproportions\" because of destroyed water systems. The UN's chief for humanitarian \r\naffairs estimates that a war could create up to 2.5 million refugees. UN \r\nSecretary General Kofi Annan estimates that up to 10 million Iraqis will need \r\nemergency food.<\/p>\r\n
Expecting a civilian catastrophe, U.S. war planners have already launched a \r\ndisinformation campaign. In a particularly chilling event, reporters for the \r\nNew York Times <\/i>were called into a special meeting to be told that Donald \r\nRumsfeld is \"concerned\" that Iraqi forces might attack their own people and then \r\nblame the U.S. for the atrocities. The scenarios they are \"concerned\" about give \r\na sense of what they think might happen during their invasion: the bombing of \r\nmosques and population centers, and the destruction of dams flooding the \r\ncountryside.<\/p>\r\n
In the last Gulf war, Kuwaiti oilfields burned. Massive clouds of poison \r\nstretched for thousands of miles--killing an estimated 1,000 people. Many \r\nbelieve this was caused by the U.S. During the U.S. re-taking of Kuwait, more \r\nthan 800 miles of Persian Gulf coast land were also stained with massive oil \r\nspills, devastating marine wildlife. Now the U.S. openly discusses the \r\npossibility of Iraq's vast oilfields burning during a coming war--and they are \r\npreparing to blame Iraq for such disasters.<\/p>\r\n
During the last Gulf war, U.S. troops deployed 117,634 land mines and \r\nthousands of tons of canister bombs containing anti-personnel \"bomblets.\" \r\nUnexploded munitions (called UXO) have killed 1,700 Kuwaiti civilians and \r\ninjured 2,300 over the last decade. Half of Iraq's agricultural land is reported \r\nunusable now because of UXOs in 20 years of war. The UXO from a future U.S. \r\ninvasion would be killing Iraqi people for decades to \r\ncome.<\/p><\/b><\/i>\r\n<\/b>
The Look of the Conqueror<\/p>\r\n
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\"U.S. Plans Full Control in a Postwar Iraq\"<\/p>\r\n
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Reuters headline, Feb. 21, 2003<\/p>\r\n
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They talk of \"liberating\" Iraq--but the imperialists plan to dominate and \r\nremake the country in their own interests.<\/i><\/p>\r\n<\/i>
The U.S. government openly expects to impose a military dictatorship on \r\nIraq for years. Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith told the Senate Foreign \r\nRelations Committee that the military and civilian administrators after a U.S. \r\ninvasion would report to the U.S. commander, Gen. Tommy Franks.<\/p>\r\n
This military regime will be wrapped in \"civilian\" covering--including by \r\nflying in a prominent American civilian. Jimmy Carter has been mentioned as a \r\npossible candidate for colonial governor.<\/p>\r\n
A powerless U.S.-appointed \"consultative council\" of about 25 Iraqis will be \r\ncreated, the Washington Post <\/i>reported--as a pool for training and testing \r\nfuture puppet leaders.<\/p>\r\n
Any Iraqi generals who \"come over\" would be quickly handed the job of \r\npolicing for the imperialists. Meanwhile the exiled Iraqi National Congress has \r\noffered its own services--promising to gather 3,000 Iraqis in a Hungarian \r\nmilitary base to serve as military police, bomb spotters, and guides for U.S. \r\ninvaders.<\/p>\r\n
Gen. Anthony Zinni, former commander in chief of the U.S. Central Command, \r\nlater told the committee the occupation could last at least a decade. One senior \r\nBush official said: \"The more visible we are and the longer our presence is, the \r\nmore of a target we present.\"<\/p>\r\n
Meanwhile careful plans are being laid for Iraq's oilfields--which contain as \r\nmany as 300 billion barrels in reserves. Massive planning is taking place for \r\nthe expansion of Iraqi oil production--under \"new management.\" And intense \r\nsecret negotiations are going on about which corporations and governments will \r\nbe \"in\" on the operations. The very fact that the U.S. is negotiating with \r\nFrance and Russia about their \"slice\" of Iraqi oil, and that the U.S. is \r\nhaggling with Turkey over whether they will \"get\" the oil of Kurdistan shows \r\nthat any future invasion is imperialism <\/i>, not \"liberation.\"<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
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These warmakers have plans--extending for years into the future--of \r\nconquering and subduing and exploiting the Iraqi people and their country.<\/p>\r\n
Young soldiers in the U.S. army are being pumped up with a mythology that \r\nthey are \"liberators\" fighting \"evul-dewrs.\" But these lies will fade when these \r\nyoung men and women march through burning cities and stand face-to-face with the \r\nIraqi people as their conquerors. The American public is told that if war starts \r\ntheir \"job\" becomes \"putting aside differences and uniting in supporting our \r\ntroops.\"<\/p>\r\n
All of us, and each of us, have a responsibility to do the right thing: Build \r\non this powerful worldwide antiwar movement we have brought into being. Expose \r\nand resist these imperialist plans for recasting our world--through every twist \r\nof future events--and stop this war.<\/p>\r\n
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker \r\nOnline
rwor.org
Write: Box 3486, \r\nMerchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654
Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: \r\n773-227-4497
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