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November 10, 2004
U.S. Will Lose More by 'Victory'
10 November 2004, Inter Press Service News Agency
BAGHDAD, Nov 10 (IPS) - A military victory for U.S. forces in Fallujah seems set to lead to a huge political loss for the U.S.-backed interim Iraqi government.
Strong anti-government reactions have set in already as reports come in from Fallujah of bombed hospitals, high civilians casualties and denial of access to medical care. The political fallout could fall far beyond Iraq.
Several governments and international groups have warned that military action is likely to undermine elections scheduled for January.
The influential Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) called on people Tuesday to boycott elections.
AMS secretary-general Dr Harith al-Dhari openly supports Iraqi resistance to the occupation. ”We have said we support the resistance since the occupation of this country began,” he said Tuesday. ”This is our right as Iraqis. Therefore, we don't need a fatwa on this issue as this matter is clear.”
The Iraqi Islamic Party, a major Sunni political party, has withdrawn from the Iraqi interim government. ”We are protesting the attack on Fallujah and the injustice that is inflicted on the innocent people of the city,” said Abd al-Hamid from the party. ”We cannot be part of this attack.”
Resistance to U.S. forces seems to be rising sharply. ”Even if the Americans take the city, they will only anger the rest of Iraq,” said Dr Khalid al-Obeidy, professor at Baghdad University. ”We have a dummy government who does only what the Americans tell them to do, so this martial law is from the Americans, not from any Iraqi government,” he said about the recent institution of martial law.
”You don't need a reason to kill anyone here -- you can kill anyone you want, so you don't need martial law,” he added. The Shura Mujahidin Council in Fallujah, an influential local group, has called on the Iraqi National Guard that is fighting alongside the U.S. military to withdraw from the battle for the sake of national unity. The council has also asked for international intervention to stop the siege, and is persuading resistance fighters in other cities throughout Iraq to assist those fighting in Fallujah.
The fighters in Fallujah believed to be mostly Sunni have won backing from Shia leaders who fought U.S. forces in Najaf earlier.
Sheikh Ahmed al-Misser, a leader at the office of the Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in the Sadr City area of Baghdad condemned the U.S.-led attack. ”I have publicly announced that if the Americans raid Fallujah and the Fallujah people asked for help of any kind, our followers are to help them in any way they can,” he told IPS. ”I mean help them by any means necessary.”
He said Sadr followers living near Fallujah and in Baghdad have been asked to look after refugees from the city.
Concern is growing over what a victory over an estimated 6,000 resistance fighters can mean for the United States and its appointed government. Killing or capturing a significant number of these fighters will not be easy for the interim government to live with.
”As we tighten the noose around him (resistance), he will move to escape and fight another day,” U.S. commander Colonel Michael Formica was quoted by AP as saying. ”I do not want these guys to get out of here. I want them killed or captured as they flee.”
The more U.S. forces succeed in this, the heavier Iraqis say will be the price they would have to pay.
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 08:10 AM | Comments (0)
November 09, 2004
Economy Hurting More Than Violence
Violence is taking a heavy toll in Iraq, but everyday economic difficulties could be hurting people more.
9 November 2004, Inter Press Service News Agency
BAGHDAD, Nov 9 (IPS) - Violence is taking a heavy toll in Iraq, but everyday economic difficulties could be hurting people more.
Nearly 20 months into the occupation, Iraqis find themselves in a desperate situation, with countless struggling to survive.
U.S. President George W. Bush said at a speech at the U.S. Army War College May 24 this year that the United States wants ”freedom and independence, security and prosperity for the Iraqi people.”
Prosperity now looks like 70 percent unemployment. A recent study found that if the food ration programme set up by Saddam Hussein's regime during the U.S.-led sanctions was disbanded, more than 25 percent of Iraqis would starve to death.
Bush had also praised ”a growing private economy” in Iraq after the former governing council approved a new law ”that opens the country to foreign investment for the first time in decades.”
But Antonia Juhasz, project director at the International Forum on Globalisation based in San Francisco in the United States says that orders to this effect by the disbanded Coalition Provisional Authority have allowed the economy of Iraq to be sold from under Iraqis.
In a paper 'The Hand-Over That Wasn't: Illegal Orders give the U.S. a Lock on Iraq's Economy', she wrote that order no. 39 allows for ”(1) privatisation of Iraq's 200 state-owned enterprises; (2) 100 percent foreign ownership of Iraqi businesses; (3) 'national treatment' -- which means no preferences for local over foreign businesses; (4) unrestricted, tax-free remittance of all profits and other funds; and (5) 40-year ownership licences.”
Iraqis are therefore not given preference in reconstruction efforts in their own country. Foreign corporations such as Halliburton and Bechtel have been allowed ”to buy up Iraqi businesses, do all of the work and send all of their money home,” Juhasz said.. ”They cannot be required to hire Iraqis or to reinvest their money in the Iraqi economy. They can take out their investments at any time and in any amount.”
The consequences of those decisions are being felt in Iraqi homes. Abu Ahmed al-Hadithi, 40, sells vegetables in the al-Adhamiya district of Baghdad. ”The economic situation is very bad now,” he said as he stood waiting to sell some cucumbers. ”The costs of gas and food are going up so high. So even if we make more now, everything is costing more.”
The vegetables he sells now are imported. ”I make less profit now, I have nine people to take care of, and it has made my life very difficult,” he said.
This is the consequence of order no. 12 of the Bremer orders as they came to be called after former U.S. administrator in Iraq L. Paul Bremer. The order suspends ”all tariffs, customs duties, import taxes, licensing fees and similar surcharges for goods entering or leaving Iraq.”
Juhasz says this led to ”an immediate and dramatic inflow of cheap foreign consumer products -- devastating local producers and sellers who were thoroughly unprepared to meet the challenge of their mammoth global competitors.”
Another critical factor leading to the dismal economic situation in occupied Iraq is that little has come by way of the promised reconstruction funds.
Anthony Cordesman from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington says that as of June 25 this year, ”the Programme Management Office (PMO) data show...out of 18.4 billion dollars in aid, 11 billion dollars has been apportioned, 7.6 billion dollars has been committed, 4.8 billion dollars has been obligated, and all of 333 million dollars has actually been spent.”
This has meant idle factories, and Abu Gouda, 50, knows what that means. The ex-factory worker too is now selling vegetables in al-Adhamiya market.
”I make between 8,000-10,000 dinars (five to seven dollars) a day, and this is just enough to feed my family of seven,” he said at his vegetable stall. ”Things have become so difficult for us, this is what I have to do to take care of my family.”
The charity Christian Aid says the U.S.-controlled coalition in Baghdad is handing over power to an Iraqi government without properly investigating what it has done with some 20 billion dollars of Iraq's own money. Many Iraqis say the economy is suffering because of the security situation.
”We have no security and this means our economy cannot function,” said Sabah Ahmed, a former local official, now unemployed. ”People are in a critical situation because of the increase in prices. The gasoline, transportation, everything is going up so much.”
Another former official is trying to sell sweets, but does not sell many.. ”Before people used to eat so many sweets, but now they are buying less because nobody can afford them.”
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 08:02 AM | Comments (0)