Troops out of Iraq!
Date: Sunday, February 08 @ 05:14:48 CST
Topic: Rest of World
By Gary Duffy, Socialist Party Sydney
The situation for the US and other coalition of the willing forces in Iraq is still fraught with danger. Bush and Co. may have had a brief psychological boost with the capture of Saddam Hussein but this will not change the fundamental situation in Iraq.
The situation for the US and other coalition of the willing forces in Iraq is still fraught with danger. Bush and Co. may have had a brief psychological boost with the capture of Saddam Hussein but this will not change the fundamental situation in Iraq.
Attacks still continue on occupying forces. It is no longer possible for the US to claim that it is Saddam who is orchestrating these attacks, apart from the fact that he is now captured, it is also unbelievable that he could have been directing such attacks from his eight foot pit. It also removes one more reason for Bush and Co to remain in Iraq.
His capture - propaganda coup that it- generates new problems for US imperialism. The Coalition forces are saying that he will get a fair trial and justice. However, such a trial if it is an open one could end up being an embarrassment for the occupiers. Significantly many western commentators when discussing the possible charges that Saddam may face overlook the eight year war and alleged war crimes that he launched against Iran in 1980 with Western support. There are certainly some aspects of the US/Iraq relationship during the 1980’s that would be embarrassing to the US if revealed in open court.
A real dealing with Sadam could only be carried out by a trial run by representatives of Iraqi workers and the poor that investigates all aspects of Saddam’s 24-year regime including those in and outside Iraq that supported him.
In the meantime real justice is being denied to everyday Iraqis. For example, Occupation armed forces raided the Iraqi Federation of Workers’ Trades Unions headquarters trashing the rooms and then arresting and releasing without charge eight members. The joint offices of the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq and the Union of Unemployed were also targeted in a raid by US led forces. Saddam Hussein’s anti-union laws are still in operation.
Most recently a panel of legal experts has called on the International Criminal Court to investigate the British government for war crimes committed during the war in Iraq. The panel made no recommendations about the US as it is not a party to the ICC statute.
Thousands of Iraqis have gathered in the southern city of Basra to demand direct elections for the country’s new authorities as opposed to US plans for caucuses to select a temporary government. The call for direct elections had been a key demand of the Shiite spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
The only way to return real justice to the Iraqi people is for the immediate withdrawal of all foreign occupying forces and the formation democratic popular bodies at all levels to take over the running of Iraqi society.
This must be done with full democratic rights for women, different nationalities, ethnic and religious groupings and full rights for trade unions and workers’ organisations.
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