Happy New Year 2008 For Iraq?
It is now over 3 ½ years since the US/British-led invasion of Iraq began. The ostensible intention of this invasion was to uncover and destroy ‘weapons of mass destruction’. The reality of what has transpired however has been over 3 ½ years of an invasion of conquest, imperial in intent, designed both to satiate the needs of the military-industrial complex and guarantee US hegemony in the region. It has brought with it, as occupation always does, a burden of suffering on the native population that the occupying power rarely has to experience or suffer.
The most recent casualty statistics emanating from the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior and elsewhere indicate that the situation, far from being contained, is consistently escalating month on month. Civilian and military casualties are at an all-time high. Civilians are dying at a rate of over 100 per day. It is noteworthy also that the US military death-toll has now reached the 3,000 mark. Comparatively speaking, US forces have taken more losses month-on-month in Iraq that they did during their first 3 ½ years of the Vietnam War. December 2006 has been the worst month in Iraq yet for US forces, with 113 deaths confirmed.
The increasing civilian and military death-tolls, coupled with the disastrous poll figures for the Bush administration, tend to indicate (if the resistance to the occupation persists, and this also is showing no signs of let-up) that the US occupation is now destined to suffer the same ignominious end as the Vietnamese occupation of thirty years ago. It must be recognised that this is always the fate that ultimately befalls those who would be occupiers and colonisers. Whether it is in Ireland, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else for that matter, the scourge of imperialism will always be resisted, and, sooner or later, those who would seek to dominate and exploit others are always defeated; for there is a contradiction at the very heart of the notion that the minority interests that imperialism serves can be upheld indefinitely in the face of the suffering and resistance of a majority.
It can only be hoped that the Americans and the British are finally coming to understand the reality that peace and stability will only emerge through respecting the right of the Iraqi people to self-determination. Over the course of the coming year it will become clear if the people of Iraq will be able to celebrate New Years Day 2008 victorious in their struggle for freedom.