US
Military And Iraqi Deaths
Soar Amidst Preparations
For Major Offensive
By Joe Kay
20 October 2006
World
Socialist Web
Ten
US troops died on Tuesday in Iraq and at least one more on Wednesday,
bringing the monthly death toll for October up to 70. At the current
rate, US casualties for the month will be the highest since November
2004, and the third highest since the invasion in March 2003. The latest
surge in casualties brings the total US death toll to at least 2,786.
The increased death rate
comes as the American military has stepped up efforts to repress the
Iraqi insurgency, particularly the Shiite population in the capital.
Five of the fatalities from Tuesday and Wednesday were in or around
Baghdad, including five soldiers killed in two separate roadside bombs,
and another killed by gunfire. Other deaths took place in Diyala, north
of the capital, and in the predominantly Sunni Anbar province in western
Iraq.
Iraqi deaths are also up
sharply, including those killed by occupation forces and those killed
in escalating sectarian violence. According to an Associated Press count,
which certainly underestimates the number of Iraqi deaths, 767 Iraqis
have been killed in war-related violence so far this month, or 45 per
day. At the current rate, October will be the deadliest month since
the AP began keeping count in April 2005.
Most Iraqi deaths, however,
go unreported and therefore would not be included in the AP figures.
A report released earlier this month—published in the British
medical journal Lancet and produced by a team at Johns Hopkins University—estimated
that 600,000 Iraqis have been killed in war-related violence since March
2003, which would amount to about 500 every day. The Lancet report also
found that the number of deaths has been steadily increasing, meaning
that the current mortality rate is likely to be much higher than this
number.
This carnage is a product
of an escalating US warfare with Iraqi resistance fighters, combined
with increasingly sharp divisions within rival factions of the Iraqi
elite, which is taking the form of sectarian killings. In Balad, a city
north of Baghdad, 100 Iraqis were killed or disappeared over the weekend,
amidst execution-style killings. The violence began on Friday, when
19 Shiites were abducted and beheaded. This was followed by apparently
arbitrary reprisals by Shiite militias against Sunni Muslims.
At the same time, the US
military is preparing to move sharply against Shiite militias, which
could produce a bloodbath far greater than the current level of violence.
The Bush administration is pressuring the Iraqi government of Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki to support a major assault on the Shiite militia
of Moqtada al-Sadr. These preparations, and Maliki’s reservations,
were revealed in an interview Maliki gave to USA Today on Friday.
The newspaper reported that
Maliki “has rejected US plans to launch large-scale operations
in Sadr City, a Baghdad slum and stronghold” of Sadr’s Mahdi
Army.
“We have told the Americans
that we don’t mind targeting a Mahdi Army cell inside Sadr City,”
Maliki said. “But the way the multinational forces are thinking
of confronting this issue will destroy an entire neighborhood.”
Maliki’s comments are
significant for what they reveal about American plans to “destroy
an entire neighborhood.” Such an operation would parallel previous
attempts to gain control of predominantly Sunni areas such as Fallujah
by leveling an entire city and decimating its population. While they
have not been revealed publicly, these plans are clearly known to Maliki
and preparations to implement them have already begun.
There is a truly criminal
character to this entire enterprise, which has produced an unimaginable
catastrophe for the Iraqi people and a tragic squandering of lives of
American soldiers. Over three-and-a-half years after the invasion, the
American military is still attempting to secure its control over the
population and natural resources of Iraq through a fresh round of brutal
killing.
Maliki’s statements
are also revealing of the extraordinary tensions building up between
the current Iraqi government and the American occupation forces. Maliki’s
decision to give the interview was clearly calculated to warn the American
government against what he considers to be a disastrous policy, one
that will undermine his own base of power and likely lead to his replacement
by someone not so closely tied to the Shiite militias.
The Bush administration and
sections of the US military now see the Shiite militias, particularly
the organization headed by cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, as the principal
obstacle to establishing a government in Iraq that will carry out the
demands of the occupying forces. While he has collaborated with the
occupation and supported the Maliki government, Sadr’s base of
support is among impoverished and working class layers of the Shiite
population who are intensely opposed to the American military presence.
The demands from Washington
are creating enormous problems for Maliki, since Sadr controls one of
the largest blocs in the Iraqi parliament supporting Maliki’s
government.
With the tacit approval of
Washington, Shiite militias have been largely integrated into the state,
particularly in the Interior Ministry, which includes the police apparatus.
Much of the sectarian killings have been carried out by members of the
Iraqi police, or with their approval.
Now the Bush administration
is shifting strategy, and demanding that Maliki follow through. An article
in the New York Times on Tuesday spelled out the current thinking within
the American establishment. Maliki, the newspaper reported, “has
come under intense American pressure to purge Iraq’s security
forces of the militias and death squads that operate within their ranks.”
“Another serious problem
for American officials,” the newspaper reported, “is Mr.
Maliki’s refusal to allow a major crackdown on Mr. Sadr’s
militia, the Mahdi Army. This has been a long-smoldering issue for the
Americans, who faced two uprisings by the Shiite militia in April and
August 2004, only to have Mr. Sadr escape outright defeat when Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most powerful Shiite cleric in Iraq, intervened,
allowing Mr. Sadr to keep large parts of his militia intact.”
These background comments by American officials to the Times were no
doubt intended in part as a response to Maliki’s earlier interview
with USA Today.
Pressure on Maliki has resulted
in his decision to remove two top officials in the Special Police, both
Shiites.
Also on Tuesday, in another
sign of increasing tensions, American forces arrested a top aide to
Sadr, Sheik Mazin al-Saedi, who is described by the Times as “the
head of Mr. Sadr’s office in the poor Shiite neighborhood of Shuala”
in Baghdad. Saedi was released on Wednesday after protests from Maliki
and discussions between the prime minister, Sistani and Sadr.
The escalating crisis in
Iraq, and the American government’s reaction, makes a mockery
of Iraqi “democracy,” which has never been anything more
than a means through which the occupying forces have sought to solidify
their control. Sadr’s organization currently holds 30 seats in
the parliament, as well as several cabinet posts. It gained these posts
in the much-touted “democratic” elections in 2005. However,
this has not stopped American forces from talking openly about destroying
the organization.
There are also growing signs
that the US is preparing an open breach with Maliki and his replacement
by some sort of military junta or “strongman” to carry out
US demands. There is some indication that the US might turn again to
former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who returned to Iraq this week for
the first time in months. While head of the “Iraqi Interim Government”
from May 2004 to April 2005, Allawi supported the American assault on
Fallujah and Najaf. While in exile after breaking with Saddam Hussein,
he spent many years on the CIA’s payroll.
Debates within the American
ruling elite over what to do about the Iraq occupation are being carried
out largely behind the backs of the American population. While it is
broadly acknowledged within the government and policy think tanks that
a major shift is necessary—including a crackdown on Shiite insurgents—a
final move is being deliberately put off until after the November elections,
now three weeks away.
There is, once again, a deliberate
attempt to exclude opposition to the Iraq occupation from the framework
of political debate, under conditions in which the war is extremely
unpopular. A recent CNN poll, conducted over the weekend, found that
64 percent of the US population opposes the war in Iraq.
This conspiracy against the
American and Iraqi people has been carried out with the complicity of
both the Democrats and Republicans. The entire political establishment
in the United States supports the basic premises of the Iraq occupation.
Disputes—within the Republican Party and between the Democrats
and Republicans—are entirely concerned with tactical decisions
on how best to defend the interests of American imperialism.
The Democratic Party is seeking
to align itself with sections of the military that have long complained
that the Iraq occupation has been a disaster because there are not enough
troops on the ground. A series of books written by Democratic Party
figures have advocated a form of “universal citizen service”—a
military draft in different language.
To cite one example, Rahm
Emanuel, a member of the House of Representatives and chairman of the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Bruce Reed, president
of the Democratic Leadership Council, advocate in their book The Plan
a program in which all Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 will
engage in “three months of basic training, civil defense preparation
and community service.” Such a program would serve as a precursor
to mandatory military service for all American youth.
These plans are being developed
in response to the growing strains of the Iraq occupation, as well as
plans for military intervention in Iran or North Korea. They will mean
more American youth being supplied as cannon fodder to carry out the
demands of American imperialism.
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