Iraq Follow

ANTI-WAR ACTIVITY has stepped up around the country in the build up to the 19 March national demonstration demanding an end to the occupation of Iraq.

NO ONE can accuse George Bush of setting his sights low. His inaugural speech last week — delivered to what amounted to a mass rally of the Christian fundamentalist right — promised more of the neo-conservative medicine that gave us the conquest of Iraq.

There is much talk in the media about the dangers of civil war in Iraq if US and Brtish troops are withdrawn. But we have to ask, who is talking about civil war, and why are they talking about civil war? There are political and class conflicts in Iraqi society. These conflicts impinge on the question of how to resist the occupation, and what form the resistance should take.

Polls carried out for the occupation authorities have consistently shown that Iraqis reject the occupation on principle and have little faith in US-appointed rulers.

Is the CIA too open and accountable? The US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, thinks so. It was revealed last week that the Strategic Support Branch (SSB), which is under his direct control, has been running clandestine operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries for the past two years.

THE ELECTION in Iraq this weekend is nothing but a fraud. I have registered as eligible to vote, but will not be voting. What right have I, living in relative safety in Britain, got to decide what goes on in Iraq? Anyone whose father is Iraqi can vote, while many in Iraq cannot. Does this sound like a free and fair election?

GEORGE BUSH and Tony Blair claim the elections in Iraq will usher in the rule of democracy. But we know who will run Iraq even before the results come through—the US is determined to keep control in Iraq.

EARLIER THIS month $300 million was taken out of the Iraq Central Bank in cash, and secretly flown to Beirut, Lebanon, in a chartered jet. The defence minister in Iraq’s interim government, Hazim al-Shalaan, authorised this withdrawal.Talking from Beirut, an aide to al-Shalaan explained the money was needed to buy arms from Poland, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Ukraine and the US and that it was approved by prime minister Iyad Allawi.

A TERRITORIAL Army (TA) soldier has resigned from the force in protest at the war and occupation of Iraq.

The great power failure Despite claims that occupation forces would rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure, a US army officer admitted last week that electricity supply has fallen well below its level prior to the invasion. Major General Thomas Bostwick reported power plants have a generating capacity of just 3,500 to 3,600 megawatts, far less than the 4,400 figure prior to the fall of Baghdad. Most of the country has just three hours of electricity a day. Electricity supply has fallen since December of last year. Blackouts are a daily reality of occupation life.

"Any appearance of a permanent occupation of Iraq will both undermine domestic support here in the US and play directly into the hands of those in the Middle East who—however wrongly—suspect us of imperial design." So spoke James Baker last week in a speech at Rice University in Houston.

HARRY COHEN, Labour MP for Leyton and Wanstead, told a Stop the War meeting last week, "15 February contributed to the unravelling of the policies to justify war—19 March can be just as effective." He was speaking at a rally in Waltham Forest, east London, alongside Sami Ramadani, an Iraqi refugee who teaches sociology at London Metropolitan University.