[Dialogue] Why the US will lose

[Harry Wainwright]

Colleagues, here is a valuable lesson for US America. Peace, Harry 
  _____  


Why the US will lose

The occupation is doomed in Iraq because whole countries cannot, short of
the complete annihilation of their societies, be seized, bought or traded,
writes Abdul-Ilah Al-Bayaty*
<http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/print/2005/767/op8.htm#1>  

Throughout the history of the Iraqi patriotic movement, since the 1920s
until now, it has been clear that the main criterion for true patriotism was
to confront the "hegemony" of foreign powers in Iraq. 

Iraq's nationalisation of its oil wealth, and its success in investing oil
revenues in economic development and infrastructure projects, has
demonstrated Iraq's ability to build its own cadre for the proper
administration of oil industries, and then make the ultimate end of such
industry serving the interests of Iraq. Even when expertise, capital or any
sort of foreign assistance was required, Iraq could get it through
contracting and cooperation. It has always insisted there is no
justification for rendering ownership of its oil fields to any other party
but the state.

The fate of Iraqi oil is vital for Iraq's future, and no government can
survive -- unless it enlists the help of foreign armies -- if it accepts to
put Iraq's oil in the hands of foreign parties. Iraq is well aware of that
fact, and it will never concede sovereignty over its territory or resources.
All international laws support Iraq in this regard.

The Iraqis as a society are opposing the United States' strategy of dividing
Iraq through the so-called political process and draft constitution. Beside
controlling and plundering the natural resources of Iraq, the United States'
plan consisted in abolishing the concept of citizenship -- the basis of any
modern state. It annulled sovereignty, destroyed heritage and memory, and
took over Iraqi wealth in an attempt to divide the country and destroy its
Arab and Islamic geopolitical and civilisation-based affiliations. The
occupation has tried, and continues to try, to replace Iraq by a subordinate
state based on ethnicity and sectarian identity: a state of parties,
lineages and religious references rather than a state of equal and free
citizens. By dividing the state into three or more weak and conflicting
entities according to the virtual lines of blood and sectarianism, the US,
in reality, draws a map corresponding to the occupation's own interests in
oil. This programmed division necessitated the abolition of the Iraqi state;
the dismantling of its apparatus and institutions and an ongoing plan of
privatisation of state-owned industries, buildings, lands and services.

While it is true that this policy creates local corrupted individuals,
feudalisms and warlords who profit from the occupation, society itself --
especially the marginalised and impoverished, educated middle classes, the
working classes, which lost the benefit of state large services, and the
youth, which suffers from unemployment and the absence of civil liberties --
reject US policy in Iraq. This will be the source of the never-ending social
struggle against the occupation and eventually its defeat, and the defeat of
its policies.

The United States established a collision course confrontation with Iraqi
society when it liquidated the Iraqi state, destroying its accomplishments
and erasing its memory. It was oblivious to the simple truth that society is
not just a political movement that can be conquered, or a number of
individuals who may be apprehended, bribed or even killed. It is all the
living people in a given country. Like other live societies, Iraqi society
possesses huge capabilities -- a sophisticated legacy, ancient civilisations
and an experienced patriotic movement. American strategists, while building
their model for Iraq, missed or disregarded the fact that social movements
are based on solid realities and lived experience, and cannot just be
created on the whim of a political decision or through insidious forms of
pressure.

The Iraqis' experience of US policies explains the failure of the occupation
forces in controlling Iraqi society through ethnic intrigue and repressive
measures. Indeed, all the geopolitical dons in Iraq stand fast against
ethnic and racial sensitivities, and against American imperialist plans in
Iraq. If Iraqis now share any social attitude towards the US, it derives
from their painful experience with the siege the US imposed on them through
the UN for 13 years, and the destruction the American invasion caused to
their country. Iraqi society has a wide civil, cultural and political
heritage that enables it to unite against any reactionary imperialistic plan
that seeks to take Iraq back to the Age of Darkness, with its attendant
feudal systems and religious and ethnic bourgeoisie.

Since the very day the occupation forces came to Iraq and the Iraqi state
collapsed, there has been an uprising by all Iraqi movements and
organisations; including those defending women, or unemployed youth, human
rights organisations, trade unions, professional syndicates, agencies
defending environmental issues and the rights of prisoners, and all other
cultural and political organisations, side-by-side with provincial and
tribal communities and peaceful and armed resistance groups. They have all
risen following an unwritten political agenda that symbolises the whole
society and derives its legitimacy from the deep sense of belonging to Arab
and Islamic tenets.

Geographically, historically, culturally and strategically, Iraq belongs to
its Arab-Muslim context. This affiliation is neither ethnic nor religious,
but rather cultural and geopolitical. The Arab-Islamic attitude is deeply
rooted in the conscience and soul of every Iraqi citizen, regardless of
ideology. Such an attitude reflects a mutual language and a joint political
project for all Iraqis -- especially members of nationalist, Islamist and
leftist groups. They all share the same principles, as follows.

First, our natural resources, our material heritage, and the riches of our
culture and civilisation are the property of the totality of the Iraqi
people in all its successive generations, both past and future. Ownership of
this wealth, whether in whole or in part, cannot be alienated by any public
or private entity. Second, the general interest and public services are the
justification and basis for the operation of the state. It is forbidden to
use the state apparatus, or its institutions, for personal or sectarian
ends. Finally, responsibility for security, defence, justice, health,
education, communication, water, energy and all major public services,
including the management of public finances, natural resources and the
country's material and cultural heritage, belongs to the state. Every
citizen has the right to enjoy these services, free of any form of
discrimination. 

The Iraqi state should therefore adopt the following principles. The
totality of the citizens constitutes the people of Iraq. The people are the
sole source of sovereignty and of constitutional, political and judicial
legitimacy. The government is responsible and accountable to all citizens.
Solidarity between citizens -- between generations, between the different
territories making up the country, and with the elderly, the ill, children
and orphans, those in need, and every human being who finds himself in a
state of weakness -- should form the basis of the Iraqi government's social
policy.

As a point of fact, Iraq's commitment to its Arab and Islamic identity is
not only a shield that protects Iraqi society from the claws of foreign
business, but also a catalyst that pushes Iraqi society to the fore of the
progressive social movement growing all over the world which opposes
neoliberal globalisation and American imperial plans. Such a movement
advocates building a new world that would be more humane than the
contemporary world characterised by barbarism and flagrant abuses of power
that crush the weak and the needy, destroy the environment, create wars and
unemployment, and devour our civil and political liberties. It has been
evident enough for everyone that American strategy in this region is one
link in a long chain of imperialist design for various parts of the world,
all aimed at similar targets and using similar justifications to tread upon
others.

Yet, American imperialist hegemony that defends the free movement of capital
over the freedom of people, grasps to command the natural wealth of other
countries, raising the banner of the market economy, is being increasingly
exposed and opposed by all peoples of the world. Opposition to American
imperialism has spread even in developed countries; it is no longer a
theoretical idea, but a reality, simply because it results in more poverty
for the poor and more wealth for the rich while leaving the middle class
completely marginalised, even inside the US itself. No one believes anymore
in the neoliberal propaganda that "capital has no home" and that its
unfettered passage through the portals of the global economy would bring
about progress and development, and create more liberties leading to
stability and justice.

The United States has no doubt achieved great progress through the
democratic model it adopted on its territory. We don't contest this. Even we
do not refuse to be members of the world's "one village" of which they are
speaking. We are ready to exchange culture, ideas, goods, techniques,
persons, to achieve mutual understanding and development. Yet, the Iraqis
and their social movements stand fast in the shadow of American imperial
efforts which would only lead to more destruction and ruin for them. 

People around the world who care for justice and hope for a more human and
humane world, should support the Iraqis in their struggle to recover their
sovereignty, and ask for the complete and unconditional withdrawal of all
foreign troops from Iraqi soil along with compensation paid for all the
material and human losses Iraq has experienced since the illegal invasion
began.

* The writer is an Iraqi political analyst based in France. 

C Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved

Al-Ahram Weekly Online : Located at:
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/767/op8.htm 

 

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