BY ROHAN PEARCE
At a White House press conference on August 8, US President George Bush told journalists that it "turns out this is our 100th day since major military operations have ended, ended in Iraq. And since then, we've made good progress. Iraq is more secure. The economy of Iraq is beginning to improve."
To back up these claims, that same day the White House released a 24-page report entitled Results in Iraq: 100 Days Toward Security and Freedom.
That day's Washington Post observed: "The report does not mention the almost daily attacks on US forces, or the kidnappings and carjackings that terrify many Baghdad residents. It does not mention Iraq's high unemployment or widespread lack of electricity. No documentation for the claims is included."
Contrary to the fantasy world painted in Results in Iraq, not only does resentment and resistance against the US-led occupation continue, but, according to Paul Sherlock, a representative of the Oxfam aid agency in Iraq, Baghdad was receiving a total of four hours of electricity per day at the end of July — less than at the time Bush declared major combat operations completed on May 1. The idea that somehow Iraq is becoming "more secure", i.e., there is less resistance to the US occupation — is patently ridiculous. When Sherlock left Baghdad, there were 10-20 "security incidents" per day, primarily armed attacks on US military vehicles. Between the release of Results in Iraq and August 20, at least 14 US and four British soldiers died.
Likewise, the assertions of the White House and the US-dominated Coalition Provisional Authority that opposition to the occupation comes from "remnants" of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party regime and "foreign terrorists" is not true. Opposition to the occupation stems from a deep and well-founded distrust of US motives for the invasion, Iraq nationalism and the people's desire for self-determination.
It also stems from a growing view of the US troops as oppressive occupiers not liberators — a view driven by the incompetence, racist paternalism and brutality of the occupation authorities.
The attitude of many Iraqis interviewed by journalists was summed up in a July 9 report in the Salon.com web site: "The most common refrain one hears from Iraqis these days is: 'They came as liberators and now they are occupiers'."
Ferry Biedermann, a Salon.com journalist, filed a story on the Iraqi resistance on August 16. Biedermann interviewed "Walid", a Baghdad University student trained by resistance fighters near Fallujah. Fallujah is part of the so-called Sunni triangle, the area where many attacks on US troops have been concentrated.
The Pentagon describes Fallujah as a "Baathist heartland". However Walid is no Baathist; he told Biedermann that "most people didn't respect the [Baathist] regime and don't want it to come back".
Nor is Walid an Islamist. He told the journalist he opposes the US occupiers because "they come by with their weapons, in their military uniforms and then there is the bad treatment. They mistreat everybody equally, men and women. We have a tradition that women should not be mistreated, but they grab and touch them."
Anger at the US and armed resistance to the occupation aren't confined to areas with a Sunni majority either — on August 15, Shiites in the Sadr City suburb of Baghdad announced at a 3000-strong prayer meeting they would form a militia to protect holy sites from US troops. This was a response to an incident on August 13, when a US army helicopter had caused a mosque's flag to come loose.
In the southern, primarily Shiite, city of Basra there were riots against British occupation troops on August 12 and 13 after persistent fuel shortages. The attitude that many Iraqis seem to hold is summed up by the comments of Kahdum Hassan. In response to a question about the recent US-Canadian electricity blackouts, Hassan told the New York Times on August 15: "Allah sent that thunderbolt. He wanted to show the Americans what we suffer through every day because of their incompetence."
From Green Left Weekly, August 27, 2003.
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