We will not raise the white flag – and the blood of the martyrs of Rafah and Gaza illuminates the road to liberation.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine saluted proudly the heroic military resistance of the Palestinian people east of Rafah, leading to the deaths of many soldiers and reports of the capture of an officer, confirming that the continued Zionist crimes against the people of Gaza, the latest being the massacre of dozens of people in Rafah, will not pass in vain, and that the blood of the martyrs of our people will remain a beacon that illuminates our path to liberation.

The criminal and brutal Zionist enemy intended in advance to target the city of Rafah through massive assaults on the city since yesterday, committing open atrocities against our people without seeing any need to justify its continuous aggression since its occupation began on the land of Palestine. The barbaric war machine’s crimes during the continued assault on Gaza for over 26 days confirms its defeat by the resistance strikes as it has resorted instead to bloody massacres against civilians, innocent women, men, children and elders in indiscriminate and massive bombing and shelling. The Front also reiterated the resistance’s confirmation that the clash with invading occupation soldiers took place before the beginning of the humanitarian ceasefire.

The Front is confident in the Palestinian resistance, its military wings, and its achievements, and the occupation’s criminal assaults and invasions of Rafah are desperate attempts to justify its utter failure in front of the great and brave resistance and its heroism, noting at the same time that the resistance is prepared to confront all of the occupation’s threats and plans to invade Rafah. The resistance will not give up, our people’s resolve will not be broken. We will not raise the white flag. We are determined to win this battle and the resistance will continue to shatter the image of the invincible Zionist soldier.

The Front renewed its emphasis on the need for our people in the West Bank to escalate their ongoing clashes with the Zionist occupation in all areas, and also emphasized the need for the Palestinian people in exile and diaspora, the Arab masses and the free people of the world to escalate their actions to support Gaza and take the streets and besiege the embassies of the Zionist enemy and expel their ambassadors.

The Front also demanded that the official Palestinian leadership immediately sign without any delay the Rome Statute and go to the International Criminal Court to prosecute the leaders of the occupation for their heinous crimes in the Gaza Strip. There is no excuse for continued postponement on this and the lack of response is understood clearly as collusion and participation in the aggression.

The PFLP saluted the steadfastness of our people in Rafah, Beit Hanoun and throughout the Strip who are subjected to systematic genocide, saying that victory is coming to reward their immense steadfastness and patience in the face of unspeakable crimes.

#GazaPalestine #Gaza #AntiwarMovement #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #Palestine #Resistance #Israel #Siege #MiddleEast

We will not raise the white flag – and the blood of the martyrs of Rafah and Gaza illuminates the road to liberation.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine saluted proudly the heroic military resistance of the Palestinian people east of Rafah, leading to the deaths of many soldiers and reports of the capture of an officer, confirming that the continued Zionist crimes against the people of Gaza, the latest being the massacre of dozens of people in Rafah, will not pass in vain, and that the blood of the martyrs of our people will remain a beacon that illuminates our path to liberation.

The criminal and brutal Zionist enemy intended in advance to target the city of Rafah through massive assaults on the city since yesterday, committing open atrocities against our people without seeing any need to justify its continuous aggression since its occupation began on the land of Palestine. The barbaric war machine’s crimes during the continued assault on Gaza for over 26 days confirms its defeat by the resistance strikes as it has resorted instead to bloody massacres against civilians, innocent women, men, children and elders in indiscriminate and massive bombing and shelling. The Front also reiterated the resistance’s confirmation that the clash with invading occupation soldiers took place before the beginning of the humanitarian ceasefire.

The Front is confident in the Palestinian resistance, its military wings, and its achievements, and the occupation’s criminal assaults and invasions of Rafah are desperate attempts to justify its utter failure in front of the great and brave resistance and its heroism, noting at the same time that the resistance is prepared to confront all of the occupation’s threats and plans to invade Rafah. The resistance will not give up, our people’s resolve will not be broken. We will not raise the white flag. We are determined to win this battle and the resistance will continue to shatter the image of the invincible Zionist soldier.

The Front renewed its emphasis on the need for our people in the West Bank to escalate their ongoing clashes with the Zionist occupation in all areas, and also emphasized the need for the Palestinian people in exile and diaspora, the Arab masses and the free people of the world to escalate their actions to support Gaza and take the streets and besiege the embassies of the Zionist enemy and expel their ambassadors.

The Front also demanded that the official Palestinian leadership immediately sign without any delay the Rome Statute and go to the International Criminal Court to prosecute the leaders of the occupation for their heinous crimes in the Gaza Strip. There is no excuse for continued postponement on this and the lack of response is understood clearly as collusion and participation in the aggression.

The PFLP saluted the steadfastness of our people in Rafah, Beit Hanoun and throughout the Strip who are subjected to systematic genocide, saying that victory is coming to reward their immense steadfastness and patience in the face of unspeakable crimes.

#GazaPalestine #Gaza #AntiwarMovement #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #Palestine #Resistance #Israel #Siege #MiddleEast

Chicago IL – In a surprise move Jan. 12, the City of Chicago granted permits to the Coalition Against NATO/G8 War and Poverty Agenda (CANG8) for a rally and march on May 19. CANG8 is mobilizing against the summits of NATO and the G8 occurring in Chicago that weekend.

“Mayor Emanuel responded to public opinion, which clearly supported our right to protest against NATO’s wars and the poverty that the G8 is pushing onto working people through their cutbacks,” said Joe Iosbaker of CANG8. “It’s the only explanation that makes sense.”

The coalition had been building broad support for their demands for permits since June, 2011 when President Obama announced the summits of bankers, generals and heads of state of the wealthiest nations. CANG8 is planning a family-friendly demonstration to take their message to within sight and sound of the McCormick Place where the summits are scheduled.

###Given with one hand, taken with the other?

However, the cover letters from the city that accompanied the permits threaten that they might be revoked. The cover letters state that Secret Service could “designate specific security zones or areas.”

This threat is very real. For months, the Chicago Police Department and Secret Service have been issuing “security assessments” to downtown schools, churches, businesses and cultural institutions saying that the protestors are so violent that everyone should leave the area during the events.

When anti-war activists first submitted an application for the Daley Plaza, it was denied with a memo that no permits would be granted for public assembly during the period of the summits. A public pressure campaign mounted by CANG8 compelled the city to backtrack on that as well.

Both of these reveal that the joint city-federal agency overseeing the summits want to stop protests from reaching the eyes and ears of the rich and powerful who will be at McCormick Place in May.

In response to the threat of a denial, Iosbaker responded, “The Secret Service should not try to take away what the city of Chicago has finally granted.”

###Resistance to Emanuel’s Threatened Restrictions on Protests

The granting of the permits is set against a backdrop of growing opposition to the repressive moves of the mayor. Mayor Emanuel is demanding changes to city ordinances to make protests harder to organize and to threaten anyone who speaks up with enormous fines and police repression. He proposed these changes in mid-December and declared he wanted the city council to adopt them at their next possible meeting.

At first, the city council leaders lined up to say “yes” to the mayor, but a pressure campaign that drew in Occupy Chicago, SEIU, the Teachers Union and civil liberties advocates forced the politicians to reverse themselves. On Jan. 12, the mayor’s office was also met with a rebellion by alderpersons who, for the first time, have said “no” to Emanuel.

In describing how the granting of permits impacted on the debate in the city council, CANG8 activist Andy Thayer noted, “The issuance of this permit shows that the current ordinances, while not perfect, are more than adequate for large public events in our city, and that the mayor should rescind his proposed anti-protester ordinances.”

The city council is scheduled to vote on Emanuel's ordinance changes at its meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 18. Two committees of the city council are scheduled to discuss the changes on Jan. 17. CANG8 is calling for a national call in day to demand Emanuel stop his efforts to deny the right to protest.

#ChicagoIL #AntiwarMovement #NATO #G8 #CoalitionAgainstNATOG8WarPovertyAgenda #MayorEmanuel

Indeed, consider the two front-runners of the election, current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. Allawi provided bogus information about the ‘weapons of mass destruction’ to British intelligence that helped build the case to invade Iraq in 2003. He cooperated with numerous foreign intelligence agencies to help overthrow Saddam Hussein’s government. As a servant of the occupation, Allawi presided over the horrific assault on the city of Fallujah in November 2004, in which thousands of Iraqis were killed while the city was reduced to rubble by the U.S. military. He went on to help set up death squads to target resistance forces and those who sympathized with the resistance; these death squads murdered tens of thousands. As for Nouri Al-Maliki, the blood of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis is on his hands, as he co-led the effort with U.S. forces to wipe out the Iraqi national resistance during the ‘surge’ of 2006 and 2007. His government is infamous for its support to sectarian death squads that targeted Sunni Iraqis.

Clearly nothing democratic or progressive can emerge from either of these loyal servants of the U.S. occupation.

Repression in Iraq

The election was carried out under the eyes of 100,000 U.S. troops and 675,000 occupation police and soldiers. Numerous reports of intimidation, assassinations of candidates, voter fraud and corruption emerged in recent weeks. (Iraq is ranked 176 out of 180 for the most corrupt governments in the world.) Over 500 candidates were banned from participation in the elections, after puppet Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declared that the candidates were supporters of the underground Baath Party. The Iraqi newspaper Azzaman reported that a week prior to the elections, 67 bodies were brought to the Baghdad morgue, all shot with silencer guns. The sources to Azzaman reported that the majority of those killed were civil servants, former Baathists and army officers. A day later Dr. Thamer Kamel, head of human rights section at the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, was shot dead.

Iraqi resistance calls for boycott of elections

The Iraqi resistance, which continues to carry out over 180 attacks each week against U.S. and occupation forces, urged a boycott of the parliamentary elections. “We will not be a party in the electoral process and in the political process as long as the occupation exists in Iraq,” explained Professor Sheikh Harith al-Dhari, the Secretary General of the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq and the spokesperson for the Jihad and Change Front, one of the largest resistance organizations in Iraq. “It is a principle we abide by and we will hold the same position until the withdrawal of the occupation.”

In a prepared statement, the Jihad and Change Front, a coalition of ten resistance groups, said, “The Iraqi people and its resistance see that the participants of the political process from the blocs, parties and individuals do not represent the will of the Iraqi people. The participation to election is to strengthen the will of the occupation and to enable him to extend and enforce agreements to realize its interests. It will bring us nothing only destruction and corruption.”

Reality on the ground in Iraq

Contrary to the rosy pictures painted by commanding General Raymond Odierno and the mainstream media, conditions in Iraq are extremely dire. Over a million Iraqis were killed by occupying forces over the six years, leaving millions of orphans and shattered families. Tens of thousands of Iraqis languish in occupation jails. Two million Iraqis have fled the country; 3.7 million are internally displaced. Less than 100,000 returned to their homes last year.

Baghdad has an average of 15 hours of electricity a day. About half the population has access to more than 12 hours of electricity a day. 50% of Iraqis lack adequate housing; less than half of Iraqis have access to drinking water and only 20% have access to sanitation services. Only 30% of Iraqis have access to any level of health services – never mind that most hospitals are severely understaffed and undersupplied. Unemployment and underemployment haunt millions of Iraqis who struggle to make ends meet for their families.

In the 1970s and 1980s, oil revenues were used to benefit the entire Iraqi population and Iraq had one of the most advanced medical systems, best educational systems and highest literacy rates in the Middle East. Today, all of that has been destroyed.

End the occupation

As the occupation drags into its seventh year, the need to rebuild the anti-war movement and pressure the U.S. to withdraw from Iraq has never been greater. Despite the propaganda and the lies to the contrary, nothing progressive or democratic can emerge in Iraq until the hated occupation is ended and Iraq’s people are free to determine their own destiny. Progressives in the United States must support the patriotic forces who resist the occupation and do everything possible to hasten the day of Iraq’s liberation.

#Iraq #AntiwarMovement #Occupation #Resistance #MiddleEast

As the U.S. struggles to increase its control throughout Iraq, repressive tactics are fanning the flames of struggle. “The resistance is going to increase,” said Abdul Qader Fahd, 30, a teacher. “Dealing with civilians like this is terrorism.” (CNN.com, 6/16/03).

Mass protests against the presence of U.S. forces and for basic public services like electricity and running water continue – despite the use of deadly force against demonstrators.

Robert Fisk, a reporter from the Independent newspaper in London, in a June 12 interview with Democracy Now, described how the resistance in Iraq is much larger than reported here in the U.S. For example, every night the Baghdad airport is under Iraqi sniper fire. U.S. aircraft have to corkscrew down tightly to the runways from up above rather than use normal flight paths, because they are shot at so much.

The White House portrays the resistance as a 'handful' of holdouts from Saddam Hussein's forces. This is wishful thinking. There is a consensus in military circles that the size, scope and intensity of the attacks are increasing, as is the level of organization shown by the armed resistance movement. This underscores the bottom line – Iraqis don't see U.S. troops as liberators. They are angry that they were attacked. The Iraqi people want self-determination and the right to move their country forward without the U.S. occupation.

Occupation is Wrong!

The U.S. government says the purpose of the occupation is promote democracy and to help rebuild Iraq. In fact, the Bush administration wants Iraqi oil for American oil companies, a client state that will do its biding, a base from which to threaten Iran and Syria and to expand its power over the Middle East.

The U.S. occupying force sets up checkpoints throughout Iraq, searches private homes, imprisons Iraqis and starves them of needed food and medical supplies. Far from 'rebuilding,' U.S. forces are destroying the country. CNN reports that up to $100 million of damage was done by U.S. troops at Saddam International Airport, after they 'secured' the facility.

Iraqis have their own political parties and movements. Occupation, by its very definition, is the opposite of a people choosing their own leaders and government. The U.S. will not allow Iraqis to have a genuine, democratic process for choosing their government. The reason for this is simple. U.S. policy makers are scared, rightfully so, that any new government, chosen by the Iraqi people themselves, would be hostile to U.S. goals in Iraq and the region as a whole. So Washington's plan is to create a puppet regime, similar to the one they put into place in Afghanistan.

Paul Bremer, head of the occupation authority that runs Iraq, has announced the broad outlines of how the U.S. plans to organize the puppet government. First, he will choose a 'governing council.' His hand-picked people from the council will then be given 'some say' over some government ministries. In the unlikely event that everything goes well for Bremer and company, national elections might take place next year. The occupation authority will decide which political parties will be allowed to participate.

The problems faced by the Bush administration are highlighted by their largely unsuccessful efforts to secure American corporate control over Iraqi oil. Thamer al-Ghadban, the former oil minister appointed by U.S. authorities to oversee the industry, has publicly defended the Iraqi people's public ownership of the oil fields. Without an internationally recognized puppet government in place, it is not possible to sell the oil industry to U.S. oil monopolies. Then there's the fact that oil pipelines are being blown up the Iraqi resistance.

Now is the Time for Solidarity!

The Iraqi people are resisting the occupation and U.S attempts to establish a puppet government because they know they need to pick their own leadership to serve their own interests. This is a just cause. It is essential that the U.S. progressive movements organize and fight in solidarity with the Iraqi people!

#Iraq #Editorial #Resistance #Editorials #IraqWar #MiddleEast

In the face of a growing Iraqi resistance movement, the plans of the Bush administration to consolidate the occupation of Iraq are crumbling. The Pentagon acknowledges that attacks on the occupation forces are growing in scale and intensity. U.S. attempts to gain more military and financial support, within and outside of the United Nations, have by and large failed. So have efforts to create a viable Iraqi puppet government. The Governing Council, made up of U.S. appointees, has little legitimacy in the eyes of the Iraqi people or in the region as a whole.

$87 Billion

Bush wants to place the financial burden of the illegal occupation on the backs of workers here in the U.S., so he asked congress to ante up an additional $87 billion. $67 billion of that is earmarked for the continued military build-up in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the resistance to occupation is also expanding.

The remaining $20 billion will be used to create a better climate for foreign corporate investment and a few public relations projects aimed at making the occupation forces seem less oppressive. The problem with U.S. attempts to purchase some ‘stability’ is that one can’t fire on demonstrators in the streets of Baghdad, and then convince the wounded that they should be grateful for reopened hospitals – especially since Iraqis know that U.S.-backed sanctions and military action were responsible for destroying what was one of the best healthcare systems in the region.

Paul Bremmer and others in Coalition Provisional Authority, the colonial administration heading up the day-to-day workings of Iraq’s occupation, imply that the costs will run much higher. Statements from Democrats in congress indicate many of them back the proposed $87 billon package. Some have taken the position that the Iraqi people should have to finance their own occupation, and that at least some portion of the package should be in the form of loans.

Making Iraq Safe for Investors

The Coalition Provisional Authority has given the green light for U.S. and other foreign corporations to take over sections of Iraq’s economy, much of which was managed by the state before the occupation. The exceptions to this edict are the politically sensitive oil and real estate sectors.

While Washington has yet to work out the specific mechanisms for U.S. corporations to take over Iraqi industry, there is a precedent in what happened after the fall of socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In those cases, many state industries were given to cronies of the emerging pro-western governments and then sold at fire sale prices to U.S. and European corporations.

For now, the U.S is handling the oil industry a little differently. On one hand, officials in the Bush administration speak in glowing terms about the day when U.S. oil firms can openly ‘develop Iraq’s oil resources.’ On the other hand, since most people in Iraq and the Middle East correctly believe that one of the U.S. war aims is the ripping off the oil fields, handing the oil industry to U.S. companies is not politically viable at this time. So, for the moment, revenues from oil will be used to bolster the political fortunes of the puppet Governing Council and the occupation Authority.Unfortunately for the occupiers, not much oil is being exported and resistance forces are attacking the oil pipelines. In October, the U.S.-appointed head of the oil industry narrowly escaped an attempt on his life.

Sinking Ship

The mounting defeats in Iraq have provoked a minor crisis in the Bush administration, complete with finger pointing behind not-so-closed doors. The appointment of Condoleezza Rice to head the Iraq Stabilization Group, which is a blow to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. While Democrats have been quick to say that the administration’s conflict is a sign that Iraq policy is ‘adrift’ or blame a ‘lack of planning for post-war Iraq,’ the issue is much larger.

No one wants to live in a colony. It’s unjust and the people living there know it. So they rebel. As a result, there is no right or smart way to run an occupation in the third world. Attempts by foreign powers to maintain direct political control have a common end – defeat. This is why imperial powers like the U.S. and Britain try to use the local elites to run things in the countries that they dominate, and have local troops do most of the fighting and dying. In Iraq, that option is limited.

Vietnam

The rhetoric used to defend the occupation has an eerie similarity to the rhetoric used to defend the war on Vietnam. In the face of mounting causalities and setbacks, the U.S. claimed to be winning. The same thing is now being said about Iraq, although Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has stopped talking about the ‘handful of dead-enders.’

There was effort at Vietnamization – trying to get Vietnamese people to fight against the liberation movement – and now we have talk getting Iraqis to ‘ensure the safety of Iraqis.’ For Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, Vietnam was the ‘front line of democracy.’ Bush claims that Iraq is the ‘central front of the war on terror.’

Resistance at Home

Families with service members overseas are organizing, demanding to be told the truth and calling for an end to the occupation. ‘Stormy’ is a standard media description of meetings between Defense Department officials and family members of troops stationed in Iraq.

Soldiers are sick and tired of being lied to by the administration about the reasons they were sent to Iraq, when they can see for themselves that control over the Middle East and its oil resources is the aim of U.S. policy.

With every passing week, the administration’s ratings in the opinion polls fall. Protests are taking place across the globe. The Bush regime is running scared.

#Iraq #Editorial #Occupation #Resistance #Editorials #IraqWar #MiddleEast

The capture of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on a farm near his hometown of Tikrit, Dec. 13, revealed much about the U.S. problems in the country. His capture did not end attacks against U.S. occupation forces or collaborators. It has made it clear that the resistance is much bigger than one man – President Hussein – and that the Iraqi people do not want to live under an occupation. So, the capture was followed by an increase in curfews, roadblocks, house-to-house searches, raids of mosques and mass arrests. Hundreds of people have been arrested since President Hussein’s capture, and many have died as U.S. troops blast open doors and shoot residents during raids.

Resistance and Repression

A quick recap of the events of November says a lot about the future of the occupation. It was a terrible month for the U.S., with the most American casualties since the invasion.

Emergency meetings in Washington D.C. between L. Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, which is the U.S.-imposed government of Iraq, and George W. Bush laid plans for an attempt to stabilize the occupation. U.S. policy responding to this crisis included a bigger crackdown on the Iraqi people, more training of Iraqis to fight Iraqis, (also called the ‘Iraqification’ of the war), as well as changes in the political structure in Iraq.

Responding to its failures to end Iraqi resistance, the U.S. government is employing the most common method of empire builders – increased repression. In November, U.S. troops began a military operation called Iron Hammer. Nighttime raids and mass arrests increased. Some neighborhoods were completely encircled with barbed wire and sand bags and the residents were denied the right to leave. Buildings and homes were bombed with massive explosives. Indiscriminate shootings at civilians occurred, as in the city of Samarra on Nov. 30.

Reminiscent of Israeli attacks against Palestinians, the U.S. government released information about a policy to assassinate members of the resistance. Homes of resistance fighters have been demolished and their family members have been jailed.

In a related development in Afghanistan, U.S. attempts to assassinate resistance leaders by bombing raids resulted in the deaths of six children on Dec. 5 and nine children on Dec. 6.

‘Iraqification’

To assist in its repression, the U.S. has stepped up its police and military training of Iraqi collaborators, a process termed ‘Iraqification.’ Iraqification refers to a failed policy during the Vietnam War, termed ‘Vietnamization,’ where the Pentagon pursued a plan of having the Vietnamese, not U.S. soldiers, do the fighting and dying for U.S. goals there. Currently there are over 140,000 Iraqis serving for the U.S., mostly as police and security guards. In the next year, the Pentagon plans to increase that number to 220,000. New recruits for the Iraqi police force are receiving accelerated training by the U.S. and its allies in Iraq and in U.S.-allied countries. It’s telling that an important part of the training is teaching the recruits enough English to understand the commands of U.S. officers.

Hundred of police are being trained in Jordan, where the U.S. backed government has a long history of torture and repression.

A major aspect of the Iraqification policy involves upping the Iraqi role in fighting the resistance, something that has been limited to this point. To accomplish this goal, the U.S. is creating a paramilitary force from militias representing organizations in the Governing Council. The U.S. wants to be able to form these militias into a single military force. U.S. Special Forces troops would work with this battalion to fight the resistance in Baghdad. The United States also plans to set up an Iraqi intelligence service with the assistance of the CIA and Jordan.

In a setback for the U.S., the first battalion of 700 Iraqi army troops was to be deployed in December, but almost half of them quit. Although their roles will still be limited, the U.S. plans to speed the recruitment and training of all Iraqi forces. The goal is for these forces to be cannon fodder and to provide increased legitimacy for U.S. control.

Little Support

The plan to ‘Iraqifi’ the war is partly a response to the reluctance of other countries to send troops to assist the U.S.-led occupation. Britain is the strongest U.S. ally and the biggest contributor of troops. It only has about 10,000 soldiers in Iraq. This compares with the more than 130,000 U.S. soldiers and an unknown number of Special Forces.

The need for these high levels of troops is due to the strength and persistence of the Iraqi resistance. At times, the U.S. has had difficulty protecting its own headquarters in Baghdad from mortar attacks. U.S. troops have been unable to protect the Iraqi and foreign personnel that support this occupation. Attacks on U.S. troops and U.S. collaborators by elusive guerrilla forces have remained at high levels.

Despite their small numbers, troops and personnel from other countries are politically important for the U.S. government. Assistance from other countries is used by the U.S. government to argue that it has international support. This is important, since the U.S. continues to receive strong international condemnation, at times including criticism from Iraqis in the Governing Council. But because of attacks by the Iraqi resistance, criticism of the governments of U.S. allies like Spain, Italy and Britain has increased inside those countries. Meanwhile, governments like South Korea and Japan have been forced to postpone deployment of troops. Bulgaria and the Netherlands had to remove ‘diplomatic staff.’ South Korea postponed deployment of reconstruction workers, and Thailand of troops. Turkey was forced to cancel its plan to send in troops.

As part of its political response to the crisis caused by the Iraqi resistance, the U.S. government decided to increase the talk of a ‘transition to democracy.’ An agreement on Nov. 15 between L. Paul Bremer and the Governing Council was presented as a step forward for Iraqi democracy. It includes the creation of another unelected government, a ‘transitional government,’ by July 1, 2004 and yet another government and a new constitution by the end of 2005.

This maneuver is a political ploy by the U.S. administration to take the pressure off for true national sovereignty in Iraq, for true rights for the Iraqi people to determine their own government and their own future. In reality, the most that will come from this is a puppet government, with all strings pulled by the U.S. The U.S. will use its power to manipulate the process and determine its results. But the Iraqi people will not be fooled, as the current Governing Council, which is universally seen as a U.S. tool, has not fooled them.

End the Occupation

On the economic front, French, German and Russian companies have been officially excluded from competing for $18.6 billion in Iraq reconstruction contracts. In fact, only companies from the United States, Iraq and 61 countries designated ‘coalition partners’ will be allowed to bid on the contracts. This is not simply an act of retaliation. This is an act of U.S. self-interest. It is mostly directed at other powerful capitalist countries that didn’t support U.S. imperialism, and will be used to ‘encourage’ them to cooperate more in the future. It is also a prelude to the plundering of the oil of Iraq. Like the reconstruction contracts, oil contracts will be parceled out to U.S. companies and companies from other countries that supported the U.S. invasion. The connections between U.S. military might and U.S. corporate profits are clear.

The U.S. policy for Iraq demands the continued development of the anti-war movement here. The war in Iraq has never been in the interests of the people of the United States. The occupation is not either.

Though some people in the U.S. have been confused by the calls to ‘support our troops,’ the Iraqi resistance has made it evident that bringing them home is the best way to support them. Though some people may have been confused by the U.S. propaganda that the U.S. is bringing a better life to Iraqis, the increased repression of the U.S. military and Iraqification of the war makes it clear that it’s a lie.

Massive anti-war rallies will take place March 20. It is vital that we build the movement to end the occupation.

#Iraq #Editorial #Resistance #Editorials #IraqWar #MiddleEast

Palestinian children are shot down and murdered by Israeli troops every week. Their blood is on the streets and their funerals are pictured in our magazines. Using U.S. guns, mortars, tanks, and helicopters, the Israeli state has killed over 400 people since September. More than 10,000 Palestinians have been wounded.

The U.S. is supporting this killing with over $4 billion annually, in cash and military hardware to the Israeli government. This aid comes from the pockets of U.S. taxpayers. The American people should not have to support and finance an apartheid system, similar to the one that was toppled in South Africa. It is time for the U.S. aid to stop!

In 1947, the United Nations, under U.S. and British pressure, divided and gave most of Palestine to European Zionists, who then drove 800,000 Palestinians from their homes. The United States raced to recognize Israel. The U.S. oil barons, like the ones in the White House today, wanted to secure a stronghold in the Arab world, and use it to control the oil markets. Today, the U.S. uses Israel as a proxy army – Middle East shock troops that shoot children, or anyone else that stands in the way.

The Israeli military continues to illegally occupy Palestinian land in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. United Nations resolutions call for the immediate and complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestinian land, but the occupation with U.S. patronage continues.

In response to occupation, the Palestinian resistance the Intifada (or uprising), began again in September. Palestinians are fighting back on every corner of every street, in every village, town, and city. The Israeli response is to shoot children with weapons paid for by the U.S. They lay siege to Palestinian towns and villages with U.S.-made tanks, artillery and surface-to-surface missiles; they demolish homes as a form of collective punishment; they assassinate armed and unarmed activists; and they murder over 400 Palestinian protesters.

The failed U.S. “Peace Plan” for Israel only reinforces the status quo, creating reservations for Palestinians, not unlike the reservations created for Native Americans here. The “two-state solution” endorsed by the U.S. further makes a Palestinian state economically dependent upon Israel, and it opens the vast Arab market to American capital under a false and repressive peace. No illegal Zionist settlements are dismantled. There is no right to return for Palestinian refugees whose homes are stolen. There is no end to the racist Zionist state.

Only the end of colonial rule in Palestine will end the conflict and bring peace with justice. Many Palestinians raise the following demands: international law must be observed; Palestinian refugees must be allowed to return; Israeli occupation must end; and a single, democratic, non-sectarian, socialist state in all of historic Palestine must prevail.

#Palestine #Editorial #Resistance #Editorials #MiddleEast

A 17-year-old Palestinian was beaten to death by Israeli soldiers in Al-Khalil (Hebron) for violating an Israeli-imposed curfew. These curfews resemble something of a ‘medieval siege’ against the Palestinians, who are not allowed to leave their homes for weeks or months at a time, and making it impossible to work, to buy food or to access medical services.

Since September of 2000, the Israeli army has killed over 1900 Palestinians. Recent weeks have seen an unrelenting and vicious assault on the Palestinian people, allowing the army the freedom and authorization to detain, kill and beat everything in its path.

Israeli checkpoints throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have broken up Palestinian territory into over 300 small land areas that people cannot travel in to or out of – essentially prison camps without bars. These closures are destroying the health and education systems, while forcing up the poverty rate to record levels. An estimated 75% of the population now lives below the poverty line of $2 a day, while unemployment stands at a staggering 62%.

Despite their illegality, dozens of new Jewish-only settlements have been established since the Palestinian Intifada, or Uprising (in resistance to Israeli rule) began two years ago. Some of them are connected to well-established settlements; others break ground in new areas. The new construction brings the total number of settlements built since the signing of the 1993 Oslo accords (which, in part, were supposed to put a freeze on settlement-building) to almost 100, expanding the settler population by 70%.

The settlements are on stolen Palestinian land. While the immediate physical ground occupied by these settlements represents only 1.6% of the West Bank, an incredible 41.9% total land area is controlled by the Israelis to keep the settlements to functioning. Every inch of this land has been taken from Palestinian workers and farmers. Many have seen their homes demolished to make room for the settlers.

This is part of a ‘master plan’ developed by Sharon and his administration. The plan strives to destroy the morale and economy of the Palestinian people so they will accept life under occupation, or to force what is left of the Palestinian Authority to accept a ‘peace agreement’ under Israel’s terms.

Sharon and the Israeli government are using the expansion of settlement blocks and the brutal repression of Palestinians to prepare for the complete Israeli reoccupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The destruction of Palestinian infrastructure and services by the Israeli military paves the way for a return to Israeli civil administration in the Palestinian territories.

Israeli military strategy aims to repress and strangle the Palestinian people and their resistance. It is financially supported with U.S. tax dollars. This strategy is not a short-term measure; rather, it is the implementation of a pre-arranged plan that will eventually lead to complete Israeli occupation of Palestine. Coupled with the impending war on Iraq, these developments in Palestine are attacks against the self-determination and freedom of all the Arab peoples. These attacks can and will be resisted. Palestine will be free!

#Palestine #Editorial #Resistance #Editorials #Sharon #MiddleEast

The upsurge began on March 25, when puppet Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki launched an ill-fated surprise attack in Basra against the forces of an anti-occupation religious leader, Muqtada al-Sadr. Al-Sadr, who commands a force of roughly 60,000 fighters known as the Mahdi Army, is popular among many lower-class Iraqi Shiites in Baghdad and cities in southern Iraq.

In 2004, the Mahdi Army twice clashed with U.S. forces. During the 2004 siege of Fallujah, fighters with the Mahdi Army stood side by side with resistance fighters against U.S. forces. But soon after, al-Sadr was brought into the Green Zone puppet government and became instrumental in holding the fragile puppet government together. The Sadrist movement participated in the parliamentary elections and took control of several ministries in the puppet government.

Many resistance forces denounced Sadr and the Mahdi Army as collaborators. They said that the puppet government was using the Mahdi Army as a tool against the resistance. And in fact, through 2006 and 2007, there were numerous reports of sectarian attacks by the Mahdi Army against civilian Sunni Iraqis, and cooperation with U.S. military forces in attacking Sunni resistance groups.

But now it appears that al-Sadr is moving away from the puppet government and that the Mahdi Army is increasingly focusing its operations against the U.S. occupation. The two leading political parties in the Green Zone, the Dawa and Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, are trying to push al-Sadr out of the occupation government. This is mainly due to three political disputes.

First, al-Sadr opposes the hydrocarbon law that would open up Iraqi oil for unfettered exploitation by U.S. oil companies. Second, he is a nationalist who opposes the partition of Iraq. Third, he rejects the foreign occupation and wants the troops out. Al-Maliki and the U.S. want to get rid of al-Sadr and the power he wields. In their eyes, al-Sadr has become an obstacle to consolidating the occupation government’s authority. Finally, some resistance organizations say that a key motivation behind U.S. and Iraqi puppet government aggression against the Mahdi Army is to neutralize that force prior to a potential U.S. war against Iran.

Al-Maliki hoped he could wipe out the Mahdi Army in Basra with a quick attack, using 10,000 of the puppet Iraqi army and police forces. He was wrong. The puppet army faced stiff resistance. As news of the attack on Basra spread, a wave of armed insurrection swept across southern Iraq and up to Baghdad, where patriotic Iraqis fought the puppet security forces in solidarity with those under attack in Basra. Unable to make progress in the ground assault, al-Maliki called in U.S. air strikes on the urban strongholds of the Mahdi Army but to no avail. Despite official reports about ‘progress’ being made in the assault, the reality of the situation was revealed when the Mahdi Army captured the puppet government’s spokesperson for the security operation. The decisive point in the battle came when over 1000 Iraqi police and soldiers surrendered their arms to the Mahdi Army and pledged their support to al-Sadr. Al-Maliki then retreated to the relative safety of his bunker in Baghdad’s Green Zone, while publicly declaring ‘victory.’

Smarting from this defeat, al-Maliki has now turned his attention to Sadr City. In an act of collective punishment, al-Maliki cordoned off Sadr City from the rest of Baghdad. About 2.5 million Iraqis, mostly poor and working class Shiites, live in Sadr City, which is about half the size of Manhattan. This time his attack is being facilitated with the full cooperation and participation of the U.S. military. The siege, which has been ongoing for nearly a month, has resulted in a severe shortage of electricity, running water, medical supplies and food.

Despite the hardships endured by those in Sadr City, resistance continues. U.S. and puppet security troops attempting to enter Sadr City are forced back by small arms attacks from anti-occupation guerilla fighters. In addition, resistance fighters have pounded the Green Zone with several hundred rockets and mortars in recent weeks, forcing the U.S. to evacuate its embassy to the Baghdad International Airport.

Unable to make headway, the U.S. military is now targeting not just militants, but anyone in Sadr City. The military is using Abrams tanks, multiple rocket launch systems, air strikes, mortars and rockets up to thirteen feet long against guerrilla fighters in densely packed, urban neighborhoods. The result has been devastating. It is estimated that over 900 Iraqis have died in Basra and Sadr City alone, while scores more have been injured. Making a bad situation even worse, on May 3 the U.S. bombed a hospital compound in Sadr City, destroying a fleet of ambulances in addition to killing and wounding dozens of civilians.

For his part, Muqtada al-Sadr threatened an “open war until liberation,” stating on April 19, “We will not accept the division of Iraq or the theft of its riches, or anything but service to the people and distribution of the riches in a manner that is just and equal. And we will not accept attacks on the Iraqi people no matter from what direction or for what reason.” His statement continued, “This is in fact the aim of the honorable resistance, which should be our pride and that of all Iraqis – indeed of all Muslims and of all free people throughout the world.”

The reference to the “honorable resistance” is to distinguish the parties and organizations that make up the national, patriotic Iraqi resistance from sectarian forces like Al-Qaeda. However, serious problems remain in the creation of a front inclusive of all forces that fight to expel the occupation and liberate Iraq, as al-Sadr continues to denounce the underground Baath Party that commands some of the largest military organizations in the Iraqi resistance.

The latest news reports indicate that the U.S. and al-Maliki are preparing for a final assault on Sadr City. This would bring with it the certainty of thousands of civilian casualties. While it is unclear how the current crisis will be resolved, it seems that the increasing anti-occupation sentiment among al-Sadr’s mass base will push him closer to the national resistance and away from participation in the puppet government. If this trend continues, the prospects for the continued U.S. occupation and subjugation of Iraq are extremely poor. Without a doubt, the decisive battles are yet to take place. But the latest round of fighting has demonstrated that once again, the people of Iraq are stronger than imperialism.

#Iraq #Analysis #Occupation #Resistance #SadrCity #PrimeMinisterNuriAlMaliki #MiddleEast

Israel’s propaganda machine could not disguise the fact that the assault was meant to crush the Palestinian resistance. Targeting the whole of the Palestinian people, approximately 1350 Palestinians, including over 300 children, were killed in the attacks, with over 5000 more injured. Over half of the injured were women and children.

Millions of people across the world rose in protest against Israel’s massacres and war crimes. The Israelis were left scrambling to defend their atrocities, but were not able to, even with the continued military, diplomatic and political support of the U.S.

The mass Arab and international popular movements united around the world, including hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Americans here, taking to the streets in passionate support for the Palestinian people. The governments of Bolivia and Venezuela cut diplomatic ties with Israel, expelling Israel’s ambassadors from their respective capitals.

The Palestinian Front and Resistance

As analyzed in Fight Back! News Service in February of 2006, Hamas won the majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) elections of January 2006. Soon after, Israel, the U.S. and the European Union refused to acknowledge the victory and imposed a political blockade on Hamas and its appointed Palestinian Prime Minister, who, according to Palestinian law, was empowered to form a unity government arrangement with elected Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas.

Later, in June 2007, after an internal battle between Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah movement supporters, Hamas took power in Gaza, prompting Israel to immediately impose a military siege on the Strip, closing the borders and restricting the entry of food, medicine, medical supplies, fuel, electricity and other essential items needed for the Gazans’ survival.

Both the blockade and Israel’s breaking the ceasefire with the Palestinians on Nov. 4, 2008 are acts of war. The Palestinian resistance to Israel’s offensive is a legitimate response to an illegal military occupation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank that has continued unabated since 1967. Israel’s unilateral declaration of the current ‘ceasefire’ is a sham, as elements of its ground forces remain in Gaza and the siege has not ended; nor have the border crossings, particularly at the Rafah border with Egypt, been opened. Tons of humanitarian goods have been sent back by the Israelis and Egyptians, most notably a delivery from Iran and a ship from Lebanon that also carried former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.

Israel’s unilateral ‘ceasefire’ also signifies that its military was not able to defeat the Palestinian resistance, which was strong and unified and included all the organizations that constitute the Palestinian national liberation movement – Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Islamic Jihad, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), Fatah and others. It also signifies that Israel’s political goals of fostering internal Palestinian division – to impose an acceptance of Israeli apartheid and occupation on the Palestinian people – was defeated as well.

This unity in resistance must translate into a political unity. So, although there are Egyptian-mediated talks between Hamas and Fatah planned, neither organization can lead the Palestinian people alone and their battle for control of the Palestinian polity can only weaken the Palestinian cause.

The Palestinian people insist that its representative should be a national unity formation, one that truly represents all of the Palestinian social sectors and resistance forces. led by a reformed and reconstituted Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

The Arab Front and ‘Normalization’

The summit of Sharm el-Sheikh (an Egyptian resort town) in late January, attended by Europeans and some Arab regimes, represents a threat to the entire Arab people and is a an attempt to revive colonialism in the Arab world. There, the discussion of European ‘monitoring’ of the Egyptian-Palestinian border proves that there is no sovereignty either in Egypt or in Gaza and that these European imperialist powers are trying to impose their hegemony on the Arab peoples.

Mouin Rabbani, a contributing editor to the Middle East Report magazine, dismissed the significance of the summit, according to Aljazeera English. He said the leaders talked about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as if it had been caused by an earthquake, adding, “I’m speechless, that you can, in 2009, have a major international gathering to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and have a whole series of keynote addresses, in which the word ‘occupation’ isn’t mentioned even once.”

In addition, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is talking about a “new Middle East” – one, for all intents and purposes, that does not challenge his and the other reactionary Arab leaders’ attempts to ‘normalize’ relations with Israel. As Mubarak explained to the Egypt State Information Service, normalization “simply means that there will be no restrictions whatsoever on cooperation in any area.”

Over the past 15 years since the failed Oslo Peace Accords, this ‘cooperation’ has manifested itself in Egyptian, Jordanian and Saudi pressure on the Palestinian Authority to liquidate the armed Palestinian resistance by arresting resistance leaders in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and engaging in ‘security talks and coordination with the Mossad (Israel’s intelligence and special operations agency) and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

The Israeli Front

In Israel the ultra-right-wing is definitely on the rise. As this analysis goes to press, Israeli President Shimon Peres has asked Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu to form the next Israeli unity government, after the recent Israeli elections saw the rightist Likud and the center-right Kadima Party neck in neck in Knesset (Parliament) seats won.

But since neither party was close to the 61 seats needed to secure the position of Israeli Prime Minister, both were falling all over themselves to unite with the virulently racist and anti-Arab Yisrael Beiteinu Party, which won 15 seats and is led by Avigdor Lieberman. Lieberman is a former member of the outlawed Kach Party, whose founder, Meir Kahane, advocated the forcible expulsion of all Palestinians from all of historical Palestine.

Now, Kadima’s leader, Tzipi Livni, claims that she is uninterested in joining any government that she does not lead, stating she “would not serve as a fig leaf for a government of paralysis.” But before Peres chose Netanyahu over her to form the new government, she “boasted of her close ties with Lieberman and their long acquaintanceship, presenting him as a legitimate politician and desirable partner in a future coalition led by her,” according to the editorial page of Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Haaretz also reports that Netanyahu has promised to initiate legislation to deprive Palestinians of their citizenship and other rights in the 1948 territories, in support of Lieberman’s stance that all Palestinians who live there must sign a loyalty oath to Israel.

Netanyahu must also bring Shas, the ultra-Orthodox Sephardic party, and several smaller religious parties (that all also have anti-Arab platforms), into his coalition government to secure the 65 seats that he guaranteed in his negotiations with Peres. These developments indict the oxymoronic ‘Jewish democratic’ state of Israel.

Palestinian-Israeli ‘Peace’ and the Lessons of Gaza

Finally, the recent elections in Israel and the Gaza War have proven the utter futility of the PA’s ‘peace negotiations’ with Israel, which have continued under the auspices of, and under pressure from reactionary Arab regimes and the ‘quartet’ (U.S., Russia, European Union and the United Nations). Most of the Palestinian resistance forces have rejected these negotiations, stating that peace is a mirage while Israel continues its military occupation of the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem and the West Bank, and while Israel detains over 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners and expands illegal Jewish-only settlements.

The Gaza War has established that Israel is not indomitable The Palestinian armed resistance is still alive and well. The vast majority of the Palestinian people support the resistance as a means to end the occupation, to secure the Right of Return for all Palestinian refugees and their descendants and to achieve freedom, independence and a lasting peace for all the people in the region.

#Palestine #GazaCity #Analysis #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #Resistance #PLO #MiddleEast

PFLP calls upon Amnesty International to end false equation of occupier and occupied

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine addressed the new report of Amnesty International on February 23, 2009, stating that human rights organizations must stop their equation of the victim with the executioner, and instead pressure the occupier to halt its attacks against our occupied Palestinian people.

The Amnesty International report called for an end to all “foreign-supplied” weapons in Palestine, calling upon the U.S. and other regimes to stop arming the Israeli occupier, but also denounced the Palestinian resistance, failing to acknowledge its international legitimacy as an occupied people struggling for national liberation and the achievement of its rights, in contradiction with international law, which recognizes the right of occupied people to resist occupation to win freedom and independence.

Rather than upholding the rights of the Palestinian people against an occupier engaged in brutal aggression, the AI report instead equated Palestinian resistance factions with the occupation army, ignoring their respective positions as occupied people and occupation force. The PFLP stated that Amnesty's call for a total ban on arms to Israel and the Palestinian resistance factions is an abhorrent fallacy presenting a false equation. Instead, the statement said, Amnesty should focus on the occupier's aggression against our people and its use of internationally prohibited weapons against civilians in the recent aggression on Gaza, including white phosphorus and depleted uranium.

The statement said that by making the false equation, Amnesty rewards the occupation for its crimes against our people. It called upon international organizations and human rights bodies to be accurate, fair and precise in their reports and to recognize the clear and obvious distinction between an occupying force oppressing indigenous people and an occupied people struggling for its freedom, and to exercise their role to pressure the aggressor to stop its attacks and respect international law.

#Palestine #News #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #Resistance #MiddleEast

We condemn Israel's murderous bombings and attacks in Gaza. Each and every Palestinian killed or wounded by Israel is an outrage to the peoples of the world. The Israeli state is punishing Palestinians and their leaders for demanding democracy and power in their own country. Israel is a colonial settler state ruled by war criminals. Israel exists on stolen land and borrowed time.

The aim of Israel is to kill the revolutionaries who lead the Palestinian people's struggle in Gaza. The Israeli military is massing to invade with tanks and thousands of ground troops this coming week. Like the April 2002 invasion of Jenin in the West Bank, the situation is likely to become even grimmer. Israel seeks to wipe out the anti-Zionist, anti-imperialist, ‘serve the people’ groups that fight for freedom – Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Resistance Committees, Islamic Jihad and others. The Israeli government is desperate to impose the rule of their puppets and stooges upon the people of Gaza.

While the peoples of the world understand that Israel is an attack dog for imperialism and the U.S. in particular, some of the Arab rulers actually help oppress the Palestinians. The reactionary regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is shooting at Palestinians who are trying to break through the border of Gaza into Egypt. While people starve and suffer, Mubarak accepts U.S. checks (and a U.S. bodyguard) for being Israel's friend. The masses of Arab peoples, in solidarity with the Palestinians, seek to overthrow these traitors.

With President Bush's blessing, Israel is bombing homes and universities, killing women, children and men, refusing hospital care to the wounded and blaming Palestinians for their oppression. It is outrageous! Still the Palestinians refuse to bow their heads. We stand with the Palestinian people. Their voices, and our voices, will not be silent. We are participating in and organizing protests around the U.S. We encourage all progressives to take immediate action, be it street demonstrations or occupying the offices of Congress people to demand an end to U.S. aid to Israel and an end to the attacks on Gaza.

End U.S. Aid To Israel!

Free, Free Palestine! Liberated Palestine!

U.S. Out of the Middle East!

#Palestine #Gaza #AntiwarMovement #Editorial #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #Resistance #Editorials

It is now safe to say that the resistance to the occupation has become the decisive factor in the Afghanistan war. A powerful resistance movement, with broad support from the people of Afghanistan, controls 72% of Afghanistan and carries out heavy or substantial activity in 93% of the country (The Struggle for Kabul: The Taliban Advance, International Council on Security and Development, December 2008). U.S. and NATO troops no longer control events in the country. It is resistance forces that decide when, where and how to engage in combat with the occupier.

Supply route cut

At the end of December 2008, U.S. and Pakistani security forces mounted a major operation to secure the Khyber Pass, a critical transit point that runs between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Khyber Pass is the source of 80% of supplies used by U.S. and NATO forces and the Afghan resistance has indicated that one of its strategic objectives is to cut off occupying forces from this supply route. Just days before the operation began, Afghan insurgents stormed a supply depot in Peshawar, Pakistan, where the transit route through the Kyber Pass begins. Without firing a single shot, they overpowered the security forces and destroyed around 300 cargo trucks, Humvees, and other military equipment destined for the occupier’s use.

Within days of the operation beginning, more than 70 people had been arrested by the Pakistani security forces, while two children and a woman were killed by an artillery shell launched by the Pakistani army. In addition, 45 homes were destroyed by Pakistani troops on “orders to dynamite or bulldoze homes belonging to men suspected of harboring or supporting Taliban militants or carrying out other illegal activities,” (Pakistan Briefly Reopens Key NATO Supply Route, New York Times, 1/03/08). Four weeks later, the security operation was still ongoing. On Jan. 18, the Pakistani army and “paramilitary troops, backed by artillery, tanks and helicopter gunships” were reported to have killed 60 fighters for the Taliban in Mohmand Agency, a department near the Khyber Pass (U.S. Secures New Supply Routes to Afghanistan, New York Times, 1/21/08). There was no report of casualties suffered by Pakistani or NATO forces.

On Jan. 19, General David Petraeus, now responsible for U.S. Central Command, announced that NATO had secured agreements with Russia and neighboring Central Asian countries to supply arms, fuel and supplies to occupying forces from the northern borders of Afghanistan – the southern and eastern provinces of the country now being completely under the control of guerrilla forces (U.S. to Be Allowed New Routes To Supply Troops in Afghanistan, Washington Post, 1/21/09).

Corruption in Puppet Government

The deteriorating state of security for the occupation forces is made much worse by high levels of corruption in the Afghan state. Dexter Filkins, a journalist for the New York Times, gave the following description of the current state of affairs:

“Kept afloat by billions of dollars in American and other foreign aid, the government of Afghanistan is shot through with corruption and graft. From the lowliest traffic policeman to the family of President Hamid Karzai himself, the state built on the ruins of the Taliban government seven years ago now often seems to exist for little more than the enrichment of those who run it.” (Bribes Corrode Afghans’ Trust in Government, New York Times, 1/01/08).

In the same article, Ashraf Ghani, the former finance minister of Afghanistan who quit in 2004 in protest of the rampant corruption, is quoted as saying, “This government has lost the capacity to govern because a shadow government has taken over. [...] The narco-mafia state is now completely consolidated.”

In fact, opium production is at an all-time high, more than triple what it was while the Taliban ruled Afghanistan. While it is commonly asserted that the opium trade is the main income for the insurgency, the above mentioned quotations from the former finance minister illustrate the reality of government involvement in, and massive profiteering from, opium production. As even President Hamid Karzai was forced to acknowledge in late 2008, “All the politicians in this country have acquired everything – money, lots of money. God knows, it is beyond the limit. The banks of the world are full of the money of our statesmen.” (Bribes Corrode Afghans’ Trust in Government, New York Times, 1/01/08).

Resistance Intensifies

The resistance to the occupation of Afghanistan is intensifying. 2008 was the deadliest year for U.S. and NATO forces, and it seems certain that 2009 will be even worse. 293 soldiers were killed in Afghanistan last year, among them 155 U.S. soldiers, which is an increase from 237 in 2007.

On Dec. 31, 2008, Taliban fighters attacked the office of Abdul Salam, a former resistance commander who defected to the side of the occupation and became a local political leader in the western town of Musa Qala. 32 Afghan police were killed in the attack, along with two Taliban fighters. One week later, on Jan. 9 and 10, five U.S. soldiers and several Afghan policemen were killed in a series of bombing attacks by Afghan insurgents. That same weekend, a huge cross-border raid took place, with hundreds of Afghan guerrilla fighters crossing over into Pakistan to attack a paramilitary base used for counter-insurgency warfare. It was reported that 40 guerrillas and six Pakistani soldiers were killed in the fighting (46 Die in Taliban Attack on Pakistani Troops, New York Times, 1/11/09).

On Jan. 15, General Fazel Ahmad Sayar was killed, along with twelve other military personnel when their helicopter crashed in the western province of Herat. The general was one of Afghanistan’s most senior military officials. The Taliban claim to have shot down the helicopter while the U.S.-backed government in Kabul says it crashed due to bad weather.

The next day, a series of attacks targeted U.S. forces across the country. In Kabul, a suicide bomber killed one American soldier and several civilians in a heavily guarded diplomatic zone of the capital. 26 others were wounded, including six U.S. service members. (Suicide Blast Kills 5 in Afghanistan, New York Times, 1/17/09). Another U.S. soldier died when insurgents shot down a helicopter in the northeast of the country. The Taliban also carried out another suicide bombing against a joint Afghan police and U.S. military convoy. The bombing injured several Afghan policeman and killed one Afghan policeman. Two days later, on Jan. 18, the Afghan resistance carried out three bombing attacks against police and military targets in the eastern town of Khost, near the border with Pakistan (Three Attacks Hit Eastern Afghan Town, New York Times, 1/19/09).

In light of the intensified levels of attacks against U.S. forces, Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered Jan. 27 that the number of helicopters assigned to medical evacuation be increased by a factor of 25%.

Occupation faltering

All the above is but a small sample of what is taking place on a daily basis in occupied Afghanistan. It is clear that the U.S. occupation is faltering. As the New York Times reported on Jan. 21:

“The commanders here call the current situation ‘stalemate,’ meaning they can hold what they have but cannot do much else. Of the 20,000 British, American and other troops here, only roughly 300 – a group of British Royal Marines – can be moved around the region to strike the Taliban. All the other units must stay where they are, lest the area they hold slip from their grasp.” (Taliban Fill NATO’s Big Gaps in Afghan South, New York Times, 1/21/09).

To fight a guerrilla war successfully, the insurgents have to stay close to the people. There is no other way to overpower a militarily superior force. This is precisely what the Taliban and other Afghan resistance groups have succeeded in doing. Afghans who still have a favorable view of the occupying forces find it increasingly difficult to uphold the occupation, when every week brings news of more civilians massacred by U.S. and NATO forces. For example, on Jan. 25, several hundred Afghans protested in Laghman Province over the deaths of 16 civilians – among them two women and three children – at the hands of the U.S. military. The U.S.-backed president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, denounced the nighttime raid and demanded that U.S. forces coordinate their activities with local Afghan security forces. Even the speaker of the Senate, Sebaghatullah Mojadeddi, was reported to have warned that “if more care was not taken, the nation could rise up against the foreign troop presence here..” (From Hospital, Afghans Rebut U.S. Account, New York Times, 1/25/09). Lutfullah Mashal, a U.S.-backed governor of the province where the massacre occurred, summed up the situation perfectly: “The people are angry with us. Unless the international community, and especially military forces, coordinate with us, we are not going to win this war, because to win the war is to win the hearts and minds of the people, and then you can beat the enemy.”

The fact is, no occupation can ever win over the ‘hearts and minds’ of an occupied people, and only those who dream of empire would think otherwise. Each massacre of Afghan civilians will provoke more Afghans to join the fight against the occupying forces, while the puppet government put in place to help pacify the population is crumbling under the astonishing levels of corruption and negligence.

The U.S. invaded and occupied Afghanistan for its natural resources and its strategic location. The U.S. army is not fighting a just cause, while the Afghan people are waging a heroic fight for independence and liberation. The U.S. likes to pretend that it is defending the Afghan people from the backwards Taliban. It is true that there are problems in Afghan society. But only the people of Afghanistan know how to solve them and move their society forward. The best solution is for the United States and NATO forces to leave Afghanistan to its people and to end the occupation now.

#Afghanistan #AntiwarMovement #Analysis #Occupation #Resistance #Asia