The occupation and new US threats could spark neighbouring uprisings
Jawad al-Khalisi*
Guardian - Friday April 1, 2005
The US-British occupation of Iraq is poisoning all political processes in
my country and across the Middle East. The elections held under the
control of the occupying forces in January were neither free nor fair.
Instead of being a step towards solving Iraq's problems, they have been
used to prolong foreign rule over the Iraqi people.
Only when the occupiers withdraw from the country can Iraq take the first
secure steps towards peace and stability. Once a strict timetable for
withdrawal is set, Iraq's political forces could freely agree and set in
motion a process of genuinely free and fair democratic elections, a
permanent constitution, and a programme that meets the demands of all the
Iraqi people.
The occupying powers are now following a policy of divide and rule,
encouraging sectarian and ethnic divisions and imposing them on all the
institutions they have created. Incidents such as the recent
kidnapping of an Italian journalist, released only to be received by a
hail of bullets from the US liberators, have fuelled widespread suspicions
in Iraq as to who is in fact responsible for many of the terrorist acts -
kidnappings, assassinations, and indiscriminate bombing and killing -that
are engulfing the whole of Iraq. These have coincided with a cover-up of
significant military operations being conducted against the occupation
forces across the country.
Not one of the terrorist crimes has been solved and not a single
perpetrator put on trial. After each major terrorist crime, the arrest of
perpetrators is proclaimed, using names and personalities spread by the
US-controlled media. This media effort - which also seeks to bury the news
of the destruction of entire towns, brutal night raids, kidnappings,
curfews, and the detention and torture of thousands of prisoners - is
overseen by the information department of the US forces, who earned the US
defence secretary's special thanks during his visit to Iraq.
These crimes are a taste of the hell created by the US project in the
Middle East. And now this hell is beginning to be visited on Lebanon,
opening the prospect of endless wars of unimaginable consequences.
Syria is now withdrawing its forces from Lebanon and laying the
responsibility of what happens next squarely on the other side. But what
will happen next? Will the Lebanese resistance (led by Hizbullah) be
disarmed? And if it refuses to surrender its weapons, how will it be
disarmed? Will it be by landing new occupation forces in the country?
This was tried in the early 80s and led to the defeat of the US and the
Israeli occupation of Lebanon. This could occur again, but on a wider
scale across the whole region, which can no longer tolerate this endless
US pressure, regarded by the peoples of the area as the implementation of
Israeli demands.
Efforts must be directed at resolving the problems of the Palestinian
people, who Israel refuses to allow to return to their lands, despite UN
resolutions and all precepts of right and justice. The Palestinian problem
cannot be resolved with exhibitionist gatherings such as Tony Blair's
recent London conference. The big powers - particularly Britain, which
helped create the problem in the first place - have a moral responsibility
to resolve it.
In the same way, the Iraq crisis cannot be resolved by patching up a
detested occupation with fraudulent elections and sectarian and ethnic
caucuses supported by the occupiers. The only solution is the immediate
withdrawal of occupation forces - or as a minimum, a strict
internationally guaranteed timetable for withdrawal. Talk about freedom
and democracy is
seen as an endlessly repeated sham by our peoples because these words are
being uttered by the very powers that have stood behind the corrupt
dictatorial regimes. The US today is still the ally and backer of many
such tyrannical regimes in our region and elsewhere.
We do not believe that the aggressive US stance towards Syria and Iran is
intended to uphold freedom and democracy either, but to get rid of states
that are refusing to go along with US and Israeli plans for the region.
Today, Syria is being held to account in Lebanon because it is refusing to
back the occupation of Iraq, and Iran is facing threats over its nuclear
programme because the US is worried about its role in relation to Iraq and
its rejection of the status quo in Palestine.
Public opinion in the occupying countries, such as the US and Britain,
needs to understand that the continuation of this unjust and dangerous
situation will create the conditions for a new and more general uprising
which threatens truly to open the gates of hell in the region and beyond.
Jawad Khalisi
Ayatollah Jawad al-Khalisi is secretary general of the Iraqi National
Foundation Congress, an alliance of secular and religious organisations
covering all religious and ethnic groups in Iraq