Using brutal tactics reminiscent of the attack on Fallujah, the US army sealed off the town (population over 60,000), trapping hundreds inside. Over 7,000 refugees were forced to flee to the desert in a desperate attempt to survive.
Experience suggests that this latest offensive will only increase the resistance’s determination to step up its attacks on occupying forces and those in the Iraqi government who support them. Since prime minister Ibrahim Al Jaafari announced his cabinet on 28 April nearly 1,200 Iraqis have been killed.
It is little wonder considering the brutality of the occupying forces. Conditions for ordinary Iraqis continue to deteriorate. A recent survey shows that barely half of households have a stable supply of safe drinking water, and the unemployment rate is now officially 27 percent, although many experts say it is closer to 50 percent. Of the $36 billion the UN and World Bank estimate is needed for the reconstruction of basic facilities, only $5.5 billion has been disbursed.
There has been no such reluctance from the US administration to pay for the war effort though. The US Congress voted in June to spend another $45 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and this comes on top of $82 billion approved for Iraq in May. So it is still the case that the demands of war, death and destruction continue to prevail over the needs of ordinary people – unless and until we force world leaders to do otherwise.
In November of last year, there was a brief moment of light amid the darkness that was 2020. Scotland became the first country in the world to make period products free for all. Just as the weekend and the eight-hour-day are now regarded by many as a given, future generations may be in disbelief that...
On 4 November last year, when many of us were watching the aftermath of the American presidential election, the US formally left the Paris Climate Agreement. Written in 2015 at the United Nations’ COP21 climate conference in Paris, the agreement is often considered to be the most significant document of international climate cooperation. Back then,...
To say 2020 was dramatic would be an understatement. The world situation has been completely transformed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the inadequacy of governmental and state responses. As we head into 2021 it feels like we are entering uncharted territory. To make specific predictions would be unwise. But the Covid-19 crisis raises fundamental questions...
The 2020 crisis we’ve endured isn’t an aberration of the system but, as Alex Callinicos argues, an aspect of its permanent crisis.
