Iraq: The War After the War -- RW ONLINE\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/p>
Operation Iron Hammer<\/p>\r\n Iraq: The War After the War\r\n
Revolutionary Worker #1222, December 14, 2003<\/i>, posted at rwor.org<\/p>\r\n \r\n
\"Since May, when major combat operations were declared\r\n over, a total of 2,227 guerrilla attacks took place in the\r\n Sunni Triangle, according to figures as of the end of last\r\n week. The rest of the country has had 1,416 attacks, most of\r\n them against occupation forces.\"<\/i><\/p>\r\n \r\n
Boston Globe<\/i> ,\r\n November 29<\/p>\r\n
As November 2003 started, U.S. helicopters were shot down by\r\n shoulder-launched missiles.<\/p>\r\n
U.S. Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld scolded those,\r\n including within his own military, who thought the occupation\r\n was in trouble: \"Sitting around wringing your hands and saying,\r\n `It's horrible, it's horrible, everything is terrible' is\r\n nonsense. It isn't all terrible. There's some darn good stuff\r\n happening.\"<\/p>\r\n
But day by day, November just kept looking worse for the\r\n U.S. occupiers. The surprise attacks by Iraqi resistance forces\r\n grew in number, power and sophistication.<\/p>\r\n
The U.S. and its allies suffered more combat deaths in\r\n November than any other month. Since March 2003, 437 U.S.\r\n soldiers have died, 81 of them in November alone. In last\r\n April, when the main combat of the invasion happened, there\r\n were 73 dead.<\/p>\r\n
According to Pentagon reports, by the end of November about\r\n 10,000 U.S. soldiers in this war have either been killed,\r\n wounded, injured in accidents, or become ill enough to be\r\n evacuated. This war is causing such a high ratio of massive\r\n injuries and amputations that the military is slipping these\r\n casualties into the U.S. on night-time flights to avoid media\r\n coverage.<\/p>\r\n
As the myth of the \"welcomed liberators\" fades, and as U.S.\r\n soldiers are picked off by the resistance, the morale among\r\n occupation forces has dropped. Many soldiers and their families\r\n have demanded to know why they are still in Iraq and what they\r\n are supposedly fighting for. Self-inflicted wounds have\r\n increased among U.S. soldiers--with suicides now representing\r\n 10 percent of non-combat deaths.<\/p>\r\n
In early December, Le Canard Enchaine<\/i> , the French\r\n weekly known for satires and exposés, reported that\r\n French intelligence sources said over 1,700 soldiers have\r\n deserted from the U.S. military during this war--many of them\r\n not returning to duty after getting leave back in the U.S.<\/p>\r\n A Specter of Defeat<\/b>\r\n \r\n
\"We could lose this situation.\"<\/i><\/p>\r\n \r\n
CIA report, November\r\n 2003<\/p>\r\n
By mid-November, the U.S. occupiers were being hit 50 times\r\n a day in Iraq. U.S. forces felt like targets any time they\r\n stepped out of their bases. In one of the largest actions of\r\n the war, an Iraqi attack killed 19 Italian police.<\/p>\r\n
As the attacks reached this new high point, a leaked CIA\r\n report sharply contradicted the official Pentagon line about\r\n fighting an isolated force of \"Saddam deadenders and foreign\r\n terrorists.\" The report was written by the CIA station chief in\r\n Baghdad, and reportedly came to the White House with the\r\n endorsement of L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. colonial administrator\r\n in occupied Iraq.<\/p>\r\n
This report concluded that the Iraqi resistance is \"broad,\r\n strong and getting stronger.\" It stressed that these were not\r\n just \"loyalists\" of the old regime--but were drawn from many\r\n different parts of the population and dozens of different\r\n groups. The resistance forces were estimated at\r\n 50,000--including, along with the actual fighters, growing\r\n organized networks of supporters among the people.<\/p>\r\n
As this summation sank in, the U.S. government announced\r\n major changes of war policy:<\/p>\r\n
First, they announced that they would speed up the \"transfer\r\n of power\" to Iraqi political forces. At the same time, they\r\n announced that they would do this without elections that might\r\n produce an anti-American government.<\/p>\r\n
Second, they announced they were speeding up the creation of\r\n a pro-American Iraqi military force-- so the U.S. could control\r\n Iraq without exposing U.S. soldiers to the dangerous work of\r\n counterinsurgency.<\/p>\r\n
Finally, the U.S. government announced it would unleash the\r\n devastating fire-power of the U.S. arsenal against the Iraqi\r\n resistance.<\/p>\r\n
Of these three plans, only one could be put into immediate\r\n action: The Pentagon called their new escalation \"Operation\r\n Iron Hammer.\"<\/p>\r\n
Hammering the People<\/b><\/p>\r\n \r\n
\"This is war. We're going to use a sledgehammer to\r\n crush a walnut. We're not going to prosecute this war holding\r\n one hand behind our back. We're going to use enough in our\r\n arsenal to win this fight.\"<\/i><\/p>\r\n \r\n
Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack\r\n Jr.Commander, 82nd Airborne DivisionNov. 18, 2003<\/p>\r\n \r\n
\"We will win because we will stay on the\r\n offensive.\"<\/i><\/p>\r\n \r\n
George W. Bush's\r\n Thanksgiving talk to the troops<\/p>\r\n
For the second half of November, the U.S. military forces\r\n re-launched open warfare in Iraq. Five U.S. Army combat\r\n brigades--over 25,000 troops--conducted massive new operations\r\n targeting Baghdad and the areas north toward Tikrit, including\r\n the cities of Falluja, Samarra, Baqobah, Thuluya and Balad.<\/p>\r\n
Tanks are entering civilian areas and blasting away at any\r\n sign of resistance. High altitude American jets are again\r\n dropping their so-called \"precision bombs\" and missiles right\r\n onto Iraqi towns. U.S. helicopters swoop down on villages and\r\n open up with massive, rapid-fire air cannons. This is\r\n collective punishment--rained down to terrify communities\r\n wherever resistance shows itself.<\/p>\r\n
U.S. forces have surrounded whole towns, put the population\r\n on the ground at gunpoint and taken away large numbers of Iraqi\r\n men. The Pentagon said their forces had conducted 12,000\r\n patrols and 230 raids and detained more than 1,200 \"suspects\"\r\n in the week from November 16 to 23 alone. U.S. jets bombed idle\r\n warehouses and factories with a randomness that has left\r\n inhabitants stunned.<\/p>\r\n
The homes are being demolished-- sometimes from afar by\r\n satellite-guided missiles, sometimes up- close and personal. On\r\n Nov. 18, General Swannack described an operation that hauled\r\n off the men of six families in Mahmudiy: \"We apprehended them\r\n and detained them, removed all family members out of the house,\r\n and we destroyed the house.\"<\/p>\r\n
U.S. forces attacked the city of Baqubah on November 19.\r\n F-15 jets dropped 500-pound bombs on farmhouses. Apache\r\n gunships and ground artillery pounded the town with heavy\r\n shells.<\/p>\r\n
U.S. forces directly invaded three Baghdad neighborhoods in\r\n force. Tanks and armored vehicles encircled whole blocks at a\r\n time, while helicopter gunships targeted cars that tried to\r\n escape. U.S. troops and Iraqi collaborators then barged into\r\n hundreds of homes and dragged away over 500 men. Intense\r\n barrages of air cannons boomed across the whole city.<\/p>\r\n
A similar operation of over 1,000 U.S. soldiers hit the city\r\n of Hawija--men were taken away and U.S. troops brought armored\r\n bulldozers with them--as the Israeli forces do--to destroy\r\n houses on the spot.<\/p>\r\n
This new U.S. offensive is openly<\/i> about intimidating\r\n the people.<\/p>\r\n
Asked why they had attacked Baqubah, Lt. Col. Mark Young\r\n reported: \"To demonstrate one more time that we have\r\n significant firepower and we can use it at our discretion.\"<\/p>\r\n
Asked if Iron Hammer would help win the \"hearts and minds\"\r\n in Baghdad, General Dempsey answered: \"I'm not running for\r\n mayor, so I'm not trying to convince you that I have the\r\n popular support of the people of Baghdad every time I shoot an\r\n Apache helicopter.\"<\/p>\r\n Wrecking Samarra<\/b>\r\n \r\n
\"They attacked and they were killed. So I think it will\r\n be instructive to them.\"<\/i><\/p>\r\n \r\n
General Peter Pace, vice\r\n chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff discussing Samarra.<\/p>\r\n \r\n
\"Were the French happy under the Nazis? It is the same\r\n thing here.\"<\/i><\/p>\r\n \r\n
Ismail Mahmoud Mohammed,\r\n U.S.-appointed police chief of Samarra, Financial Times,<\/i>\r\n December 1<\/p>\r\n \r\n
\"Give me a gun, and I will also fight.\"<\/i><\/p>\r\n \r\n
Majid Fadel al-Samarai,\r\n worker in Samarra's emergency room after U.S. attack<\/p>\r\n \r\n
\"I even saw Iraqi people throwing stones at us. I still\r\n can't understand why somebody would throw a stone at a tank,\r\n in the middle of a firefight.\"<\/i><\/p>\r\n \r\n
Anonymous U.S. \"combat\r\n leader\" in Samarra<\/p>\r\n
Almost none of these brutal events received coverage in the\r\n mainstream U.S. media. But then as November ended, the U.S.\r\n military itself decided to make a big splash.<\/p>\r\n
They announced their forces had fought uniformed Saddam\r\n loyalists in Samarra -- killing 54, wounding 22, capturing up\r\n to 11, and only allowing a few to escape. The U.S. forces\r\n claimed that they only suffered seven wounded.<\/p>\r\n
It was the first time the U.S. military had used a\r\n Vietnam-style \"body count\" to claim victory in Iraq. The\r\n Pentagon clearly wanted to give the impression that they were\r\n turning the tables on the resistance.<\/p>\r\n
These U.S. reports were a lie, and quickly fell apart in the\r\n light of day. One commentator remarked that the precise number\r\n of the body count was a giveaway. This was all an invention of\r\n the military commanders, supposedly based on interviews with\r\n their soldiers.<\/p>\r\n
Reporters discovered that the U.S. forces only had one\r\n prisoner, who may not be part of the resistance. The\r\n surrounding hospitals only had eight dead--all of them\r\n civilians. No bodies of dead fedayee<\/i> were found at\r\n all.<\/p>\r\n
Interviews were given by people of Samarra. U.S. \"military\r\n expert\" David Hackworth published a report claiming to be from\r\n an anonymous U.S. officer on the scene. A very different\r\n picture emerged.<\/p>\r\n
As the AP dryly noted: \"There was no way to reconcile the\r\n accounts.\"<\/p>\r\n
It came out that six months ago, U.S. troops had shot an\r\n unarmed wedding party in Samarra, and that earlier this month,\r\n the town had been bombed from the air.<\/p>\r\n
Then, on December 1, two U.S. columns--with six tanks and\r\n four armored vehicles plus squads of police and\r\n infantry--arrogantly entered Samarra in force to deliver a\r\n shipment of cash to the isolated pro- U.S. city authorities.\r\n Guerrilla fighters apparently knew they were coming--and\r\n launched a tenacious and well-planned attack.<\/p>\r\n
Hackworth's correspondent said that the U.S. forces \"hosed\r\n down houses, buildings, and cars\" with machine gun fire and\r\n shells.<\/p>\r\n
People of Samarra said that, as the resistance fighters\r\n withdrew, the U.S. forces simply kept pounding the surrounding\r\n residential areas for hours with their powerful tank rounds.\r\n Helicopters rocketed surrounding streets.<\/p>\r\n
The BBC wrote: \"Used in a densely populated urban area,\r\n built with flimsy mud-bricks, it is almost inconceivable that\r\n people well out of sight of the gunners were not also injured\r\n in the battle.\"<\/p>\r\n
Residents claimed that at least 60 civilians were wounded.\r\n U.S. forces damaged a local mosque and destroyed a kindergarten\r\n (which had luckily just been cleared of children). Shrapnel cut\r\n into Abir al- Khayat, 28, and several others riding in a\r\n mini-bus taking them home from the local pharmaceutical\r\n factory.<\/p>\r\n
The \"battle of Samarra\" was no U.S. victory. It was the\r\n latest U.S. atrocity in a month of atrocities.<\/p>\r\n
The fact that the U.S. command dreams of propping up war\r\n support by inventing \"body counts\" of Iraqi dead shows the\r\n ugliness of their cause, and the deadliness of their\r\n intent.<\/p>\r\n