http://wsws.org/articles/2005/jun2005/resi-j28.shtml
US military sinks further into the Iraqi quagmire
By Peter Symonds
28 June 2005
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By any measure, the US military occupation of Iraq is steadily sinking into a
quagmire of Washington's own making. Successive claims by the Bush
administration that the capture of Saddam Hussein in December 2003, the
installation of an interim administration last June, national elections in
January and the inauguration of the new puppet government of Prime Minister
Abrahim al-Jaafari in April would end armed resistance have proven to be
completely illusory.
There is no end in sight to the daily attacks on American and allied military
personnel, or Iraqi government security forces. In London for talks with
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, al-Jaafari told the press yesterday: "I
think two years will be enough, more than enough, to establish security in our
country." His remarks reflect both wishful thinking and a rather desperate
attempt to retain some credibility with the Shiite supporters who voted for his
United Iraqi Alliance because it promised to set a timetable for US military
withdrawal.
The raw figures demonstrate the scope of the anti-occupation insurgency. US
casualties are running at the highest levels since the January election. In
May, 80 US personnel were killed and so far in June another 75 have died-an
average of nearly three a day. The number of US deaths for the year to June 27,
is 890 and, since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the total is 1,740.
The number of attacks by armed insurgents averaged 57 a day for January and
February; dropped slightly to 53 a day in March and April, and hit 70 a day in
May. Figures are not yet available for June but there is no indication that
armed resistance is abating. Over the past two months, 52 Iraqi government,
legal and religious officials have been assassinated. At least 1,338 people,
including many Iraqi police and army personnel, have been killed since
al-Jaafari formed his government on April 28.
The attacks reported over the past few days give an indication of the level of
armed conflict. On Monday, a US Apache gunship crashed at Mishahda north of
Baghdad killing both pilots. Eyewitnesses said the helicopter was shot down by
a rocket. According to Associated Press statistics, there have been 20 fatal
helicopter crashes since March 2003, in which 128 people have died.
Yesterday also, a bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad killing at least four people
and injuring another 16. Another two people were killed by a roadside bomb in
northern Azamiyah neighbourhood.
On Sunday, three suicide bombs killed at least 32 people in the northern city
of Mosul. The first blast took place when a pickup truck laden with explosives
slammed into a downtown police station, killing at least 10 policemen and two
civilians. Two hours later, 16 people lost their lives when a suicide bomber
blew himself up outside an Iraqi army base on the city outskirts. The third
explosion at the Mosul's Jumhouri Teaching Hospital killed five policemen and
injured several others.
Elsewhere in Iraq, another 18 more people were killed on Sunday, including a US
soldier whose convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in Baghdad. Six Iraqi soldiers
were gunned down outside their base north of the capital. The previous day in
Mosul, a suicide car bomb exploded at a police checkpoint, killing five
officers and wounding two more.
Last Thursday, a suicide car bomber attacked a US convoy near Fallujah, killing
six American troops and injuring at least 13. The US media has focussed on the
fact that three of the dead and 11 of the wounded were women, but the site of
the attack is more significant. Last November, the US military levelled much of
Fallujah and put what remained of the city under tight martial law, yet it has
clearly failed to eliminate armed anti-US resistance in the area.
An article on the New York Times last week highlighted the difficulties facing
US military commanders: "[W]ith recent American troop levels-139,000 now-they
have been forced to play an infernal board game, constantly shuttling combat
units from one war zone to another, leaving insurgent buildups unmet in some
places while they deal with more urgent problems elsewhere...
"High-intensity operations like the one at Fallujah are like driving a stake
into a hornets' nest, many American officers say. They scatter the insurgents,
who regroup and return as soon as American troop numbers are reduced. Seven
months after Fallujah was recaptured, in ruins, pockets of insurgents still
operate in the city. Tal Afar, Mosul, Qaim, Haditha, Samarra, Ramadi,
Hillah-all have been targets of coalition offensives, only for the insurgents
to come back, starting the circle over."
As the article explained, the number of effective combat troops is far smaller
than the overall totals. "American commanders, their army bottom-heavy with
support units, have at most 60,000 American and allied combat soldiers
available, and only a fraction as many Iraqi soldiers rated combat-ready."
Unreliable Iraqi government forces
On paper, the number of Iraqi police and soldiers, as of this month, is more
than 168,000. But these forces, on which the Pentagon is depending to play a
larger role, are unreliable and infiltrated by resistance members.
An article in last week's Newsweek magazine entitled "Enemy Spies" highlighted
the fact that the Iraqi security forces have "hundreds of 'ghost soldiers' who
vanish, sometimes for months on end, but continue to draw their pay." The fear
that these "ghost soldiers" have connections to the insurgency was confirmed
when a recruit to the notorious Wolf Brigade, who had gone AWOL, walked into
the elite unit's heavily-protected headquarters in Baghdad on June 11 and blew
himself up. Three brigade members were killed and a dozen others were wounded.
At least 176 Iraqi police have been directly implicated in recent car
bombings-their fingerprints were found on bomb debris. According to Security
Minister Abdul Karim al-Inizi, that is only a fraction of the total number of
infiltrators. "A number way bigger than that is still active and still in
service," he told Newsweek. Referring to the recruitment of former members of
Saddam Hussein's hated Mukhabarat intelligence service, he added: "They
penetrated easily because [the] government brought them back without asking
enough questions."
According to US estimates, its forces killed 15,000 insurgents over the past
year, but the figure for the strength of the insurgency remains about the
same-between 12,000 and 20,000. An unnamed Special Operations source told the
magazine, only 1,000 of the insurgents were foreign fighters and the rest were
Iraqis, who could count on "as many as 400,000 auxiliaries and support
personnel". He indicated that there were at least 40 distinct resistance groups
which at times combined forces for joint operations.
The US is continuing to mount repressive sweeps through areas thought to be
sympathetic to the insurgency. The arbitrary killing and detention of
"suspected insurgents" only fuels anger and hostility that provides more
recruits to the armed resistance groups. One indication of the size and scope
of such operations is the fact that the US military has been compelled to
expand the capacity of the jails under its control to make room for more and
more detainees.
An article in the Los Angeles Times on June 26 revealed that as of last
Saturday the prisoner total in June stood at 10,783 on average, up from 7,837
in January and 5,435 in June 2004. Major General William Brandenburg, who
oversees US-run prisons in Iraq, told the newspaper: "Business is booming". Not
only has the Pentagon been compelled to abandon plans to hand over Abu Ghraib
prison to Iraqi authorities, but is preparing to spend $50 million to expand
overall jail capacity to 16,000 prisoners.
The main two US-run prisons-Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca-are operating near their
limits. So volatile are the prisons that US authorities are constantly on the
watch for potential unrest. Two major riots have broken out in Camp Bucca over
the last six months. On January 31, guards used live ammunition to break up a
riot, killing four inmates. The vast majority of the prisoners are Iraqis and
only a small fraction-about 1,600 detainees over more than two years-have been
sent to the Iraqi court system.
Confronted with the failure to suppress the insurgency, US and Iraqi officials
are attempting to split the opposition. An article in the London-based Times on
June 26 provided details of a meeting between US officials and insurgent
leaders at a villa north of Baghdad. It included representatives of Ansar
al-Sunna, which claimed responsibility for killing 22 people in the dining hall
of a US base at Mosul last Christmas. The US group included senior American
military and intelligence officers, an embassy official and a Congressional
staff member.
US Defence Secretary Rumsfeld acknowledged that the meeting, and "probably many
more", had taken place, but refused to confirm any details and downplayed its
significance. There was every reason for Rumsfeld to dismiss the Times article,
which confirmed that such efforts have been a complete failure. While US
intelligence officers unsuccessfully attempted to wheedle information from
those present, the insurgent leaders insisted that all they were interested in
talking about was a withdrawal date for US forces.
One response in Washington to the deteriorating military situation is to demand
a beefing up of the US military presence in Iraq-more soldiers, more gunships
and more repression to cow a hostile population. Whatever its immediate and
temporary successes, such a strategy would inevitably generate more hostility
and provoke broader overt opposition-armed and otherwise-to what is an illegal
neo-colonial occupation aimed at subjugating the oil-rich country to US
economic and strategic interests.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. Menuju Indonesia yg
Lebih Baik, in Commonality & Shared Destiny. www.ppi-india.org
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