Iraq: War as Form of Government

A year on from the not too difficult victory over the Saddam Hussein regime, which didn’t even bother to put up much of a fight, Iraq still appears anything but pacified, and indeed in a state of permanent war. It is similar to the way it was in Lebanon for 18 years and as it continues to be in Palestine, Somalia, in ex-Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Chechnya…

The latest media broadsides tell of the militias turning to a certain Moqtada al-Sadr, a young Shi’ite priest, inevitably pictured with regulation beard and turban, who was virtually unknown until a couple of weeks ago, but has immediately been promoted to ‘enemy number one’ of the United States. Indeed, so dangerous is he considered that Lieutenant-general Richard Sanchez, the commander of the American troops in Iraq, has declared his capture ‘dead or alive’ as a ‘primary objective’; just as capturing Saddam Hussein was a few weeks ago, and as capturing that other ‘paragon of evil’, Osama bin Laden, remains still.

According to this line, ‘terrorism’ is organised at an international level by Bin Laden, who is said to have sworn war on the USA for some reason known only to himself, whether religious, political, personal… who knows?

However, it is important not to get swept up in this constant parade of personalities, demons, and heroes, served up to the imbecile ‘general public’ of North and South as though they were characters in a comic opera, which in fact many of them probably are. The script goes something like this: Bin Laden had his headquarters in Afghanistan and was protected by the Taleban regime (which the United States had in its time organised, and armed, to fight the pro-Russian regime): it was therefore necessary to attack Afghanistan to drive him out, but Bin Laden managed to get away on an old motorcycle. It then became necessary to attack Iraq, where the ‘dictator’ ex-ally Saddam Hussein was both producing, and still in illegal possession of, weapons of mass destruction, was protecting terrorists, and was contemplating attacking the West…

After occupying Iraq, destroying the state apparatus and dissolving the Baath party and the army, victory was solemnly proclaimed. But tenacious guerrilla warfare continued to cause a steady stream of deaths amongst the occupying troops: the problem, it was said, was Saddam Hussein, who was still issuing orders to the troops from his secret hiding place. But, after the capture, hidden in a hole in the ground, of the Iraqi ‘ace of Spades’, guerrilla warfare has continued unabated. Now the enemy is this minor priest, who is the son, however, of a very important priest: the ‘great ayatollah’ Mohammed Sadek Sadr, assassinated in fact in 1999 by Saddam Hussein.

Meanwhile, over the last few days, in the city of Fallujah 60 kilometers to the west of Baghdad, battles have broken out between alleged ‘Sunni’ militias and American soldiers. The latter, who don’t do things by halves, proceeded to do their job and reduced a large part of the city to rubble. Even a member of the Iraqi council, nominated by the USA, described the American assault as “a collective punishment inflicted on the inhabitants”. Seventy or so dead were reported among the American troops, and about 600 dead, and thousands of wounded, amongst the civilian population who were trying to flee the bombardment. It is also rumoured that the second battalion of the new Iraqi army, trained by the USA, refused to intervene. The Fallujah massacre prompted various resignations by members of the Iraqi government who no longer wished to compromise with the occupying power.

The United States needs this war in the same way as they need Iraqi oil to fight and win it. In mid-April, the Provisional Authority of the Coalition (PAC) made known that “in the time it has governed Iraq, Baghdad has exported petrol to the value of more than 7.5 Billion dollars” and that this sum “has been deposited by the Authority, under the supervision of the USA, in its Iraqi Development Fund”. In short, the cost of the occupation of Iraq is being paid for with Iraqi petrol revenue. According to OPEC the value of the Iraqi oil exports is even higher: in 2003 it was 9.6 billion dollars and this year it is expected to be over 16.5 billion. Based on the official 2004 budget published by the PAC, income from oil is due to increase sevenfold between 2003 and 2006. The fund is controlled by the PAC’s Management and Budget Office, which answers directly to the US administrator of Iraq, Paul Bremer.

Iraqi oil is now American “stuff”, and Washington isn’t about to give it back; not even if Bush, as is possible, is substituted by the elusive John Kerry, who has already written in the Washington Post, “If our military commanders require more soldiers we must send them (…) We must persuade NATO to create a new ‘out of area’ operation in Iraq under the supervision of an American commanding officer”. In short, as Il Manifesto writes, “Kerry has announced that he wants to carry on with the war and with the occupation”. The Americans have been accused by the Europeans of incompetence and of underestimating the problem, and even their English allies have criticised their way of going about things since it is increasingly bolstering their opponents’ front. But it is not just a matter of incompetence. In its March 14 issue Il Manifesto reported how the senior American official, General Richard Myers, the president of the joint chiefs of staff, described, in a Pentagon briefing of April 7, America’s role in deliberately inciting the events which occurred in the first half of April: the aim being to legitimise the long-term presence of American troops in Iraq. It’s just that maybe sometimes things get out of hand and the Iraqi reaction is stronger than expected by the Stars and Stripes strategists.

Indeed, the June 30 deadline is fast approaching: that is, the date by which the Americans, under pressure from the rival powers, have had to promise to concede some ‘autonomy’ to an ‘independent’ Iraqi government, to arrive then at ‘free’ elections. But Iraqi domestic ‘autonomy’ means nothing more than sharing the petrol revenue with the country’s dominant classes, and the abundant ‘reconstruction’ contracts with the other imperialist brigands; something which the Americans corporations are obviously keen to postpone as long as possible.

“We don’t think that date (June 30) important militarily in terms of changing our tactics, procedures and techniques, nor our mission” declared American General Mark Kimmit, deputy director of Coalition operations. “We expect to be operating on July 15 exactly as we’ll be operating on June 15”.

The United States can no longer rely on those considerable means of corruption which it deployed at the end of the Second World war; that imperialist financial infiltration which permeated the defeated countries. It has nothing to offer the Iraqis but corruption, repression and idle chatter about ‘Freedom’ and ‘Democracy’. Outside Iraq all the imperialist rivals lie waiting in ambush and inside Iraq all classes are rising up against it. The occupiers can only find support amongst the reinstated local ‘war lords’, in the incursions of armed bands, with those backed by America always ending up the strongest and best organised. All they can work towards, therefore, is an increasing balkanisation of Iraq. Even the Provisional Constitution, approved in the first week of March, paves the way to chaos in the future by dividing the country into three ethnic states (Kurdish in the North, Sunni in the centre and Shi’ite in the South). The seething foam of partisanism, on which the Americans intend to float their pontoon, will undoubtedly prove a secure antidote to class struggle, and maybe this is its most important function of all.

Bush’s policy on Iraq (if you can call it that) mirrors that of his man in Israel, Ariel Sharon: domination maintained by a perpetual state of war mobilisation. The anti-Americanism which is diffused throughout Iraq and the Arabic countries doesn’t, paradoxically, worry the American bourgeoisie and is the fruit of Washington’s policies. The crisis-ridden imperialist juggernaut holds no prospects for millions of disinherited Iraqis who, with the collapse of the regime, find themselves destitute. This is why it has taken to launching ferocious reprisals over large urban areas to ‘flush out the terrorists’, and is making arbitrary arrests. The Shi’ite and Sunni priests, taking advantage of the ill-feeling which is the inevitable upshot, then step in and utilise that capillary diffusion, common to all churches, of their religious network; and their money, lots of money, to arm and pay the militias so as to mobilise more and more followers against the occupiers. Other bourgeois States, near and far, can in their turn collaborate by financing and arming their own war bands.

Thus it is war, war at any cost, deprived of any long-term political strategy. Capital, of which the United States is the greatest global representative, needs war in order to survive its historic crisis, and it intends to progressively draw the entire planet into the vortex of destruction.

Today the Iraqi proletariat is squeezed between two terrorisms, American on one side and Islamic on the other. Tomorrow, capital will probably come up with two new poles to fight for, but in essence they will remain the same.