[R-G] Dahr Jamail: The Horrible Truth

[Sid Shniad]

http://www.truthout.org/042409A 

t r u t h o u t                                                                                         April 24, 2009 

"... The Horrible Truth" 

Many Americans who voted for Barack Obama last November continue to 
believe he will do the right thing in Iraq. The reality is that, unless forced 

to do so from below, there will be none of the promised "change" in 
US foreign policy. 



by Dahr Jamail 



The US occupation of Iraq, which has become the full responsibility of 
President Barack Obama, is once again a bloodbath. Not that it had ceased to 
be violent, brutal and chaotic, for not one day has passed since the US 
invasion of Iraq was launched that hasn't found several Iraqis being 
senselessly slaughtered. But rather than talking about three Iraqis being 
killed today, or two dozen, we are again talking about several dozen, and 
over 100 wounded, as we are seeing recently. Each of these Iraqis have been 
killed as a direct result of the US occupation of Iraq - their blood 
splattered on the hands of President Obama, who, during a visit to Baghdad's 
airport on April 7, praised the US military for their "extraordinary 
achievement" in Iraq. 

    On April 23, over 73 Iraqis were killed in two separate suicide attacks. 
One bomber detonated his explosives in central Baghdad as a group of 
policemen were distributing relief supplies to Iraqis who had been driven 
from their homes during the US-fomented sectarian bloodshed of 2006 to 
mid-2007. Police said that at least 50 people were wounded; at least five 
children and one woman were among the dead. 

    A second major suicide bombing occurred that day as well, near 
Muqdadiya, about 50 miles north of Baghdad. The bomber targeted Iranian 
pilgrims who were in a restaurant, killing at least 45 and wounding over 60. 
The Shiite pilgrims were visiting Shia religious sites in Iraq. 

    The bombings reek of al-Qaeda in Iraq - whose operations were brought to 
a standstill thanks to both the Iraqi resistance and the al-Sahwa 
(US-created Sunni militia comprised mostly of former resistance fighters, 
who were largely abandoned by the US military and are now being attacked by 
the Iraqi government). The Sahwa have been abandoning their security posts 
in protest at having not been paid by the Iraqi government for their work, 
as well as in protest of the ongoing targeting of their leaders by the 
government. Prime Minister Maliki perceives the Sahwa as a political threat 
to the existence of his government, so has taken it upon himself to 
undermine their existence at every turn, as he has from the beginning. 

    The recent spasms of horrendous violence in Iraq are a direct result of 
the US abandonment of the Sahwa, and the US reluctance to stop Maliki from 
his ongoing policies to disenfranchise the group. The Sahwa were able to 
find al-Qaeda when the US military could not. Now that they are ceasing 
their security operations across an increasing portion of Iraq, naturally, 
the ability of al-Qaeda to conduct their operations increases. 

    Meanwhile, we have the pathetic propaganda from the impotent Maliki 
government in Baghdad. On the same day of the aforementioned bloodletting, 
just after the second bombing, Iraqi state television announced that Abu 
Omar al-Baghdadi, the purported leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, an 
al-Qaeda-linked group, was captured in eastern Baghdad. Security experts 
have previously speculated that al-Baghdadi was a character invented by some 
extremist groups rather than a real person and the US military does not 
believe there was ever a single al-Qaeda leader with that name. 

    There will be more attacks like this. They have less to do with the 
approaching June deadline of US troops to withdraw from cities in Iraq, 
(aside from Mosul, and any others the US military feels it should not 
withdraw from), and more to do with the Sahwa being hung out to dry by both 
the US military and the Iraqi government. 

    My cynicism is due to the fact that the Maliki government is not ceasing 
its attacks on the Sahwa, nor is there any indication the US government will 
force them to do so. 

    Neither the US military nor the Iraqi military has proven itself capable 
of finding al-Qaeda, nor of ceasing the attacks. In fact, Agence 
France-Presse reported on April 22 that the US military is, in fact, 
continuing to lead 'Iraqi-led' operations. The report reads: 

  "The [US and Iraqi] troops assembled by torchlight at Camp Falcon for a 
mission to the farming village of Owessat, which American and Iraq forces 
believe is being used as a staging ground for bombings in and around the 
capital. As with nearly every operation in Iraq these days, the Americans 
insisted that the Iraqis were in charge, leading the fight against Al-Qaeda 
and other armed groups with US forces cast in a supporting role. But the 
scene at Camp Falcon told a different story: six years after the invasion 
that toppled Saddam Hussein, the Americans not only vastly outnumbered the 
Iraqis, but they were giving orders and providing vital logistical support. 
Under a security pact signed in November, Iraqi forces are to assume full 
responsibility for security as US forces withdraw from cities and towns by 
June 30 and from the country as a whole by the end of 2011. Iraqi and US 
leaders and commanders have repeatedly said that Iraq's 560,000 police and 
260,000 soldiers will be able to maintain security as the Americans pull 
back and have vowed to adhere to the timeline of the security plan. But on 
the Owessat operation this month, 600 US troops backed by helicopters were 
joined by a group of 40 Iraqi soldiers who, over the course of the 21-hour 
raid, repeatedly took their cues from the Americans." 

    Many Americans who voted for Barack Obama last November continue to 
believe he will do the right thing in Iraq. The reality is that, unless 
forced to do so from below, there will be none of the promised "change" in 
US foreign policy. Those on the receiving end of US policy in the Middle 
East, Iraq in particular, know this better than most Americans. 

    In April 2004, when I was in Fallujah during the first major US military 
assault on that city, I spoke with Maki al-Nazzal, who was managing a small, 
makeshift emergency clinic. We spoke while dozens of women and children, 
most shot by US military snipers, were carried into the clinic. 

    "For all my life, I believed in American democracy," he told me with an 
exhausted voice. "For 47 years, I had accepted the illusion of Europe and 
the United States being good for the world, the carriers of democracy and 
freedom. Now, I see that it took me 47 years to wake up to the horrible 
truth. They are not here to bring anything like democracy or freedom." 

    Maki, who is now a refugee in Amman, Jordan, continued, "Now I see it 
has all been lies. The Americans don't give a damn about democracy or human 
rights. They are worse than even Saddam." 

    I asked him if he minded if I quoted him with his name. "What are they 
going to do to me that they haven't already done here," he replied.