Lead
Iraq resistance – renewed fury
by our Arab Affairs Correspondent
The Iraqi resistance offensive continued with renewed fury last
week with heavily-armed commandos attacking American patrols across the
country while other partisans concentrate on dealing with collaborators
and traitors. Nowhere is safe for the US troops and their lackeys –
least of all Baghdad, the most-heavily garrisoned hub of the army of
occupation.
Resistance sources accuse the Americans of using banned napalm and
chemical weapons in the assault on Fallujah and this was confirmed by
Fallujan refugees living in Baghdad who said the main US assault was
preceded by clouds of a sweet-smelling “apple-smelling” gas that
created open wounds on the skin while those who inhaled it began to
vomit blood.
In Baghdad the resistance has virtually cut the city off from the
international airport. When Australian defence minister Robert Hill
landed last week he was unable to visit his own embassy in the capital.
Partisans hunting collaborators in central Baghdad clashed with
American troops in broad daylight after shooting an Iraqi traitor dead
in Haifa Street just three blocks away from the heavily fortified
“Green Zone” US military compound.
Other Iraqi traitors, lackey troops selling truck-loads of loot
plundered from Fallujah in a market they set up in Baghdad’s al Haswah
neighbourhood were reminded of the fate that awaits them when a barrage
of mortar rounds poured down on them on Tuesday.
In general Iraqis wonder at what role the “national guard”, sometimes
dubbed “Alawi’s army” after the quisling “interim premier”, is supposed
to play as their speciality seems to be robbing and killing civilians.
In the southern British-occupied zone the “national guard” are little
more than highway robbers and no lorry coming from Kuwait or Basra can
get past their check-points without greasing their palms.
In Fallujah the resistance is continuing hit-and-run attacks in the
near-deserted ruins of the town. Resistance sources claim that they
still effectively control half of Fallujah and this seems to be
confirmed by reports that the Americans are seeking talks with
representatives of the town’s police and civil defence militia as they
did last April when the Marines were driven out last time.
It was a less than triumphant George W Bush who addressed his Marines
at their base in California on Tuesday. Gone was the “bring them on”
bravado that followed the capture of Baghdad last year. Now a sombre
Bush spoke of an insurgency that was getting worse. The US leader who
stood under a banner reading “Mission Accomplished” in May 2003 to
claim that combat operations in Iraq had ended now could only speak of
eventually stabilising Iraq.
And in Kuwait US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld faced a grilling
from American troops complaining about their shoddy equipment. The
troops, mainly US National Guard and reservists on their way to Iraq,
cheered when one soldier told Rumsfeld they had been forced to root
through rubbish for scrap metal to reinforce their armoured cars.
Others complained about the extended tours they now endure and that
regular soldiers got better equipment than reservists or national guard
units.
Anglo-American imperialism is now putting all its bets on the bogus
Iraq elections set for 30 January which they hope will fire up
sectarian and ethnic divisions in Iraq and allow them to divide and
rule for years to come. But nobody believes that any poll under the
bayonets of the US-led army of occupation can be anything but free and
fair. Few think it can even take place.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is one of them. He told visiting Iraqi
stooge premier Alawi in Moscow that: “I honestly say that I cannot
imagine how elections can be organised under a full occupation of the
country by foreign troops. I also cannot imagine how you, on your own,
will be able to restore the situation in the country and stop it from
breaking up”.
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Editorials
Counting the dead
Forty six eminent
figures including five former ambassadors, bishops, a retired general
and the former assistant chief of defence staff have signed an open
letter to Tony Blair urging an inquiry into civilian deaths in Iraq.
The call for an independent inquiry into the number of Iraqis killed or
wounded along with the reasons for the casualties follows the study by
the British medical journal The Lancet that put the death-toll at
around 100,000.
Nobody knows how many Iraqis have been killed during and since
the Anglo-American invasion last year. What we do know is that neither
the Blair government nor its masters in Washington want to tell us what
their own assessment is.
The weasel words of the Government, in response, have been to
bleat that only the Americans can provide the answers. This is
undoubtedly true as the Americans are responsible for most of the
deaths. But it doesn’t stop the Government from claiming that the
puppet regime’s own low estimates are the most accurate data available.
The imperialists have no hesitation in producing figures of human
rights violations when it suits their interests. Colossal casualty
figures for the conflict in Darfur are cited to justify possible
intervention against Sudan despite the fact that they are seriously and
vigorously disputed by the Sudanese authorities.
The British government, as a major occupying power in Iraq, has the
responsibility to assess the death toll amongst Iraqi civilians that
are theoretically under its protection. If the British occupation
authorities haven’t got the means to do it then they must ask the
Americans for it. Then they tell the British public what really has
been done in our name over the past 18 months.
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Blunkett
must go
Home Secretary David Blunkett has been in the media spot-light
this week but not of his choosing. He’s admitted to paying for his
former girl-friend’s first-class travel tickets out of public funds. He
claims it was a “genuine mistake” and the money has subsequently been
repaid. More seriously, Blunkett’s been accused of using his position
to advance the visa application of her nanny.
Though the allegation have been referred to an inquiry there can
be little confidence in it given the past whitewashes over the “dodgy
dossier” Iraqi arms scandal or the mysterious death of the Iraqi
weapons inspector, Dr Kelly.
Blair and his cronies have closed ranks around Blunkett to
dismiss media attacks as intrusions into the Home Secretary’s private
life and personal misfortunes with a reticence they never displayed in
opposition when it came to Tories under the sleaze scrutiny. Blunkett
is one of Blair’s loyal henchmen who has given the task of pioneering
the most reactionary legislation in Labour’s history in the new
parliament. No-one in the labour will movement will miss him if he goes.
The issue is clear. David Blunkett must resign if he is found to have
abused his position by fast-tracking the visa application of his former
girl-friend’s nanny
.
