US
Troops Terrorize Baghdad In “Operation Law And Order”
By Kate Randall
21 February,2007
World
Socialist Web
Thousands of US troops went house
to house through mostly Shiite areas in northeastern Baghdad February
13 in the opening phase of Operation Law and Order, the “surge”
plan announced by the Bush administration January 10.
The plan aims to deploy an
additional 21,500 US combat troops, the vast majority going to the Iraqi
capital. The operation reportedly will involve a similar number of US
support troops.
Additional Kurdish and Iraqi
troops are being brought in from other parts of the country. At least
3,000 US troops and 2,000 Iraqis have arrived thus far, with the full
increase in troop numbers not expected until May.
The aim of Operation Law
and Order is to move into strongholds of resistance throughout Baghdad,
arrest or kill insurgents, and occupy the neighborhoods.
The “surge” is
part of US imperialism’s broader effort to extend its domination
over the entire Middle East. The US has two aircraft carrier groups
stationed in the Persian Gulf, the largest military presence since 2003,
and Patriot missile defenses have been installed in other Gulf states
as the US ratchets up its preparations for a military strike against
Iran.
Early Monday, an attack by
three suicide car bombers killed two American soldiers and eight Iraqi
officers at an Iraqi police headquarters that is being used as a US
base in Tarmiya, 25 miles north of Baghdad. The US military also confirmed
that 17 US troops had been injured in what it referred to as a “coordinated
attack.”
Attacks on such vulnerable
bases—and the deaths of more US troops—can be expected to
increase as the US counterinsurgency operation proceeds. The death toll
of US troops now stands at 3,144.
The vast majority of Iraqis
see the American military as their enemy and occupier. Recent polls
show that the majority of Iraqis believe that killing American soldiers
is justified.
Despite these well known
facts, the US government and a compliant American media portray the
US operation as a benevolent effort to protect the Iraqi people from
what they often call “anti-Iraqi forces.” The absurd premise
is that the American military, which is ultimately responsible for the
deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, is “pro-Iraqi,”
while those Iraqis who resist the colonial conquest of their country
and oppose the US-backed puppet government are, by definition, terrorists
and criminals.
As the counterinsurgency
operation got underway, with thousands of US troops sweeping through
neighborhoods, supported by US fighter jets flying overhead, thunderous
booms could be heard across the city. American forces set up small bases
in the middle of communities, where they will be stationed instead of
returning to their fortified bases in the Green Zone and elsewhere.
New checkpoints were set
up around the city, with individuals frisked at gunpoint and cars and
motorbikes searched from top to bottom. The US military announced on
day two of the operation that it had cleared several areas of the capital
in “intelligence-focused searches.”
British and Iraqi forces
closed two border crossings with Iran in southern Iraq, blocking the
gates with large metal shipping containers. They also expanded coastal
patrols to monitor maritime traffic into southern Iraq. Basra, Iraq’s
second largest city, was ringed with checkpoints in an operation the
British military said would last for 72 hours.
In preparation for a major
assault, security forces sealed off Sadr City, the densely populated
Shiite slum in Baghdad that is a bastion of support for the Madhi Army
of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Haidar Karam described to
the Los Angeles Times how some 50 troops suddenly emerged and circled
his Shaab neighborhood in the city’s northeast. About 15 minutes
later, a half dozen Humvees arrived and US snipers took up positions
on rooftops. Troops stopped vehicles from moving. The US military reported
capturing 16 suspects and seizing three Kalashnikovs in the largely
Shiite neighborhood.
The predominantly Sunni Dora
neighborhood was also one of the first to be hit, with US troops targeting
the Abu Disheer Shiite enclave. With Humvees and armored vehicles protected
by aircraft, US troops set off stun grenades before smashing down doors
and storming houses in search of insurgents.
The Los Angeles Times reported
that in Sadiya, a nearby Sunni neighborhood, an Iraqi soldier searched
a home for weapons, harassing a woman in her 70s. “What, grandma,”
he said, “don’t you have any rocket-propelled grenades or
roadside bombs?”
In the downtown Yarmouk district,
streams of unmarked SUVs filled with masked security officers drove
by, pointing assault rifles at motorists. Police pickup trucks patrolled
the streets, with plates of armor attached in makeshift fashion to the
vehicles’ sides.
American officials have released
no estimate on the total number of arrests and casualties in the Baghdad
operation.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice made a surprise half-day visit to Baghdad on Saturday to underscore
the Bush administration’s determination to carry through the operation
in the face of popular opposition in the US and a non-binding resolution
passed the previous day by the House of Representatives opposing the
escalation. Her visit was also intended to increase pressure on the
Iraqi government of Prime Minister Mouri al-Maliki. “How the Iraqis
use the breathing space that [the operation] might provide is what’s
really important,” she said during a 10-minute address in the
heavily fortified Green Zone.
Those assembled for Rice’s
brief talk included Maliki, a Shia, President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd,
and Vice President Tariq Hashimi, a Sunni. The US has long demanded
that Maliki confront the Mahdi Army and Al Sadr, upon whose support
the prime minister has depended to retain his shaky hold on power.
Rice reiterated administration
warnings that the “surge” would produce increased bloodshed.
“There are going to be bad days for the Baghdad security plan,”
she said, “when violence is up—not down.”
While in the initial days
of the operation sectarian violence and deaths appeared to decline,
by Sunday the death toll was nearing the 100-per-day Baghdad residents
have come to expect. Three car bombs exploded in mainly Shia areas of
the city, killing at least 67 and injuring more than 120.
The increased violence followed
a video conference with President Bush last Friday in which Prime Minister
Maliki described the first days of the operation as a “brilliant
success.”
Since the US invasion, some
2 million Iraqis have moved outside the country and another 1.7 million
have been internally displaced The International Organization for Migration
reported last Friday that another 1 million Iraqis could be expected
to flee the country by the end of 2007 as a result of the unrelenting
violence and the economic and social catastrophe resulting from the
US occupation.
The US media has provided
virtually no coverage of the actions of American soldiers in Operation
Law and Order The major media outlets are colluding with the Bush administration
to keep the true nature of the operation from the American people.
Nevertheless, there is considerable
anxiety within sections of the US ruling elite over the policy being
pursued by the Bush administration Earlier this month, the Council on
Foreign Relations published a policy brief entitled “After the
Surge: The Case for US Military Disengagement from Iraq.” The
statement noted that the US intervention in Iraq “triggered the
collapse of the Iraqi state, plunged the country into a civil war that
brought about the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, wrecked
the country’s already debilitated infrastructure, and spurred
violence sectarian rivalries that threaten to spill over into the broader
Middle East.”
It continued, “The
crisis has now moved beyond the capacity of Washington to control on
its own. The results of the midterm elections show that public support
for the present course has buckled. The United States lacks the military
resources and the domestic and international political support to master
the situation.”
The main factor on which
the war cabal around Bush depends in pursuing its reckless and incendiary
policy is the cowardice and complicity of the Democratic Party. Leading
Democrats, even as they criticize Bush’s “surge” on
tactical grounds, repeatedly avow their “support for the troops”
and opposition to a cutoff of funds for the war.
Leave
A Comment
&
Share Your Insights