Iraqis
throw rice, dance to celebrate the end of the American
occupation
in the city of Basra, June 30. U.S. forces have now
withdrawn
from Iraq's towns and cities.
L'Humanité, France
America in Iraq:
Six Years of Mass Destruction
"On
Monday, the American army withdrew from all of Iraq's cities. They leave
behind a fragile, devastated country both in terms of security and politics."
On Monday, the American
army withdrew from all of Iraq's cities before a final withdrawal of all combat
forces in late 2011.The country's security will be ensured by 750,000
Iraqi soldiers and police, who will take possession of the 157 evacuated
American bases. Under the agreement signed last year between both countries
[the Status
of Forces Agreement], Washington will maintain a force of 100,000 troops in
Iraq and a significant air power capability. It also stipulates that U.S.
forces have the right to intervene only when coordinating with Iraqi
authorities. But they leave behind a fragile, devastated country both in terms
of security and politics.
The withdrawal comes six
years after the May 1, 2003, speech given by George W. Bush on the deck of the
aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln announcing the end of the fighting. “In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our
allies have prevailed. (Applause.) And now our coalition is engaged in securing
and reconstructing that country.” he said then. “We're pursuing and finding leaders of the old regime, who will be held
to account for their crimes. We've begun the search for hidden chemical and
biological weapons and already know of hundreds of sites that will be
investigated.”
He then concluded: “We've removed an ally
of al Qaeda, and cut off a source of terrorist funding.” Indeed, Saddam Hussein
and some leaders of the ruling Baathe Party were apprehended, tried and
sentenced to death. But the question of chemical and biological weapons proved to
be a huge lie. As for the restoration of security and the reconstruction of the
country, the situation is far from stable. And on the economic front, apart
from the oil production under the control of Halliburton, almost everything
remains to be done. In short, what, in the minds of Washington hawks was going
to be a military walk in the park turned out to be a terrible war of
destruction, torture and sectarian conflict, punctuated by the shattering of
the country's public institutions.
A process of disintegration began in May, 2003,
when Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator of Iraq, disbanded the Iraqi army and the
police and initiated a massive purge of administrative personnel and public enterprises
under the pretext of “de-Baathification.” The country was thus left without even
a semblance of administration. On the military front, these six years of occupation
have resulted in severe loses for the U.S. military: over than 4,300 marines
and GIs have been killed, nearly 50,000, or about half of its ground troops (146,000
soldiers) were wounded, most of whom are handicapped for life. According to Nobel
economist Joseph Siglitz, the cost of the war has exceeded $2 trillion. As for Iraqi
civilian loses, official sources estimate that 103,000 have been killed, but
according to human rights organizations, the number is closer to 500,000.
To overcome the insurgency,
the American military was forced into a terrible confrontation. So it was in the
siege of Fallujah in 2004 and again during the bloody stormings of Ramadi, Al
Hamra, Routba and Tel Afar between 2005 and 2008. She [America] resorted to
torture, as shown by the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. As for the missing, they
are too numerous to count. These six years of occupation have seen, through the
adoption of a new Constitution, the introduction of Sharia law, and for women,
the annulment of a law passed in 1958 under General Abdul Karim Kassem that
granted equal rights to men and women. Islamism, in both its Sunni and Shiite variants,
became entrenched and became better organized. Secularism is in retreat. And as
in Lebanon, sectarian and religious voting has prevailed in both national and
regional elections. Six years during which sectarian divisions have been
reinforced, more and more often taking a violent turn, as when the Shiite Golden
Mosque in Samarra was destroyed by al-Qaeda's Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
in February 2006.
By the end of 2008, Iraq,
as a state and a nation, had given way to a country that is split into three
ethno-religious entities: a Shiite South, a central region dominated by Sunnis
and in the north, a nearly autonomous state of Kurdistan. And in the
background, the capital of Baghdad, where communities are separated by concrete
walls. In addition to these geo-religious communities, there exist some pockets
that could explode overnight. Such is the case with Kirkuk, an oil-rich region claimed
by both the strong Turkish-speaking minority and the Kurds, who want to annex it
into the autonomous region of Kurdistan. Turkey has already warned that it will
not accept the incorporate of this region into Kurdistan, while neither Iraq nor
Saudi Arabia has any intention of remaining passive.
