Tuesday, March 16, 2010

This Is A Victory? For Who?

In a propaganda move worthy of 1984's Ministry Of Truth, the reactionary punditry of the U.S.A. is manufacturing a victory out of the disasterous imperialist excercise known as Operation Iraqi Freedom ( few military operations have had such a juvenile and ironic name). Thumping their chests with nationalistic pride, the mouthpieces of the American elite practically cream in their pants when describing how their smirking idiot idol, George W. Bush, had defeated the evil "terr'ists" with the Surge. As if simply adding more troops to a battlefield was a stroke of genius that only Bush could think of." The Iraqis had an election!" they crow. " American casualties are the lowest since 2003!", they shout. " We won! We won! Democracy in Iraq has finally arrrived!", they boast.
I hate to fingerfuck your wet dream, guys, but if we take a peek behind the props of your carefully constructed Potemkin Village we find out the real reasons for this " victory" and who the real winners are.
Let's start with the Surge.
So President Fucknuckle decided to send in 20, 000+ more troops into Iraq in 2007. It sounds like a lot, but it really isn't in a country the size of Iraq. They weren't used in some grand offensive ala World War 2. What they did do was tighten up security in Bagdhad and other cities. This allowed the pro- government police forces and Shi'ite militias to roam around in the capital and other large cities and ethnically cleanse them. Are you familiar with the name John Negroponte? He became Bush's ambassador to Iraq three years earlier. Negroponte had considerable experience with insurgents who fought against Corporate America's interests- he was President Reagan's ambassador to Honduras during the 1980s and racked up considerable success for local capitalist pawns by funneling support to the Contras in Nicaragua and the death squads in El Salvador and Guatamaela. Was his appearence in Bagdhad,and the soon to follow organized torture, execution, and mutilation of the U.S. backed regime's opponents, and the subsequent Sunni exodus a coincidence? I really doubt it.
But hey, that's in the past- with our attention spans, it may as well have been a thousand years ago. The Iraqis had an election! Yaaaay! Democracy!
Yeah, well big fuckin' deal. After the invasion in March 2003, the U.S. government got the Iraqi police to hustle up an election as soon as possible, to show not the Iraqis, not the world, but the asshole protesters back in the States who had the bad taste to question why the fuck we were in Iraq if not to make energy company execs and war profiteers happy, that hell yeah, it was worth it. We brought freedom and shit. Now shut- up and don't doubt us anymore.
And all would have been cool, if that first election, and every one since then- including the latest- wasn't mired by fraud, coercion, and massive violence. A healthy democracy doesn't have armed thugs hustling you out of your house to vote for their guy, have you dodging body parts that are flying through the air from a car bomb because some other thugs don't like their guy, and then voting twice for their guy 'cause it is good for your health to do so.
This is a democracy so democratic that even murderers have a shot at being elected. And remember Moqtada al- Sadr? He is also in the new Iraqi parliament.
So who wins in this "victory"? The Iraqi Shi'ite politicians came out ahead. The Kurds won a little more independence. Iran did allright- they got allies in the Iraqi government. Dick Cheney and other war profiteers made out like bandits. The rest of us, Iraqis and Americans, were left holding the bill, which is still being paid off in our blood and our treasure.

No comments: