Iraq's Baath Party Calls the Petraeus Report a 'Cover Up'

The Arab Socialist Baath Party in Iraq stressed in a statement that the report submitted by President Bush’s assistants in Iraq, Ambassador Ryan Crocker and the leader of occupation forces, General Petraeus, was close to what Iraqis and many politicians and analysts in America and the world expected, and that the intent of the report is to cover up the rapid collapse of America’s colonial occupation of Iraq.

Baath party representative Dr. Abu Muhammad said that “official America organs and U.S. media have spent the last few months loudly creating the impression that this report would take a fresh look and provide a new vision.”

“In the first place, this was a device to deceive the American public. Secondly, it was intended to hoodwink international public opinion, which rejects the fascist policy of war, aggression and occupation of the Bush Administration. This deception was carried out by suggesting that Crocker and Petraeus would present an independent and precise assessment of the situation in Iraq, scientifically analyzing and putting forth a list of options that would be beneficial to the U.S., on the pretense that they aren’t workers in the employ of Bush’s Administration; as if at the core of their duty wasn’t to beautify the ugly face of their master’s policy and strategy, who appointed them to their civilian and military positions in Iraq.”

According to the Baath Party representative: Crocker and Petraeus inundated the eyes and ears of Congress members and the American people, as was expected, with an elaborate list of sterile details, figures, statistics, tables and maps of little or no real significance. This hypocritical theatrical presentation of the Americans warned about al-Qaeda, the militias loyal to Iran, and Iran’s role in undermining Iraq.

The Baath Party representative went on, “Do these two Bush Administration officials – informed by his misguided government organs – think it’s possible that Iraqis, Arabs and people in many quarters of America, Europe and the world have forgotten that militia leaders are now in positions of high authority in Iraqi government departments and security agencies, which were created after the invasion by America’s occupation administration? Does Bush really believe that people have forgotten that all of this was done with the complete knowledge and approval of his administration; that it is under his administration that the criminal fascist campaign of kidnapping, arrest, torture, murder, displacement and the assassination of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis began, with the full knowledge and under the eyes and ears of his forces and intelligence agencies, and that it is these that first approved of all of this? “

“Is it possible that these two [Crocker and Petraeus] and their master imagined that public opinion would overlook the fact that there was no al-Qaeda presence in Iraq before the occupation; that it was the occupation that opened Iraq’s borders and facilitated the illegal entry of al-Qaeda into Iraq; and that it was they who then pretended that the terrorists had retreated to Iraq, thus obliging the U.S. to fight them here rather than on American soil – which we gather from many official American statements?”

“And finally, do they imagine public opinion will overlook the fact that there was no mention of Iranian influence in Iraq before the invasion and occupation, and that it was the American occupation authorities who opened Iraq’s doors to Iran? This occurred through close cooperation Iranian intelligence before the invasion, through infiltration by Iranian double agents, exiled party leaders and sectarian party members that are loyal to Iran and who worked for British intelligence in London, and by relying on these forces to reconstitute Iraq’s security and military agencies. With government agencies staffed with people loyal to Iran and without stationing police along the border between Iraq and Iran, Iraq was thrown open to thousands of Iranian Guard, Iranian intelligence members and their weapons.”

Dr. Abu Muhammad said that the civilian and military officials assigned to manage the occupation and their masters – the fascist criminals in Washington – imagine that Iraqis, Arabs and many others don’t realize that the American administration had intended to employ Iran to play a destructive role. This was to be done either by directly using the Iranian intelligence apparatus, Iran-friendly death squads, or local militias loyal to Iran, to enflame the sectarian uproar, battle the [Sunni] Iraqi resistance, destroy Iraq’s state infrastructure as well as its scientific, civilian and military elite.

He added that the goal of the Crocker-Petraeus report can be summed up as a desperate effort to cover up the catastrophic military and political failure and disgraceful moral decline of the imperialist colonial occupation of Iraq, and as an attempt to market this collapse by claiming that these are important steps on the road to victory, if only more time and patience can be provided! Why?

“Because that 21st century war criminal, Bush, insists on continuing the war of fascist genocide begun by his father in August 1990 against the people of Iraq, which entered a more deadly phase with the invasion and occupation over 4 and a half ago years ago.”

“It seems,” the Baath representative added, “that the criminal Bush’s thirst for Iraqi blood has yet to be quenched, even after over a million Iraqis have been killed since the invasion, and after 2 million Iraqis were decimated by the embargo between 1990 and 2003. The truth is known to anyone who observes American politics: the evil war maniac Bush doesn’t want to admit the failure of his illegitimate colonialist project, which would lead to the collapse if his presidency and the end of his fascist and criminal war.”

He added: “As expected, the two American war criminals [Crocker and Petraeus] ranted on in their report about what they called “security and political progress,” in order to raise the hopes of the foolish about impossible hopes of progress and victory. Where is this progress, when every day American soldiers die at the hands of the brave Iraqi national resistance? Where is the progress when every day the blood of Iraqis is being shed on the streets of Iraq, when every day thousands of Iraqis are thrown into the prisons of the occupation, the militias and the government? Where is this progress when an Iraqi can no longer protect his family, his home or his property, and Baghdad’s neighborhoods are separated by high walls and fences that isolate people into a huge number of – all thanks to sectarian and ethnic cleansing supervised by American occupation forces, government security forces and their militia proxies?

Where is this progress when tens of thousands of Iraqis every day flee to neighboring Syria to escape the hell of the occupation, so that now the over four million are displaced inside Iraq and 2 million have fled abroad? Where is this progress when public services have deteriorated and the most important of there – electricity and water – have disappeared, and the occupation has returned Iraq to the pre-state era of 6,000 years ago? Where is this progress when American occupation forces use their land, air and rocket forces to wage daily brutal attacks on Iraqi homes, workplaces and gatherings? Where is this progress when sectarian parties and militias loyal to Iran, as well as the death squads connected to the American, British, Israeli and Iranian intelligence agencies, continue their killing, displacement, banishment and kidnapping against Iraqis who oppose the occupation; and those not affiliated with occupation parties, regardless of their religious, racial and tribal affiliations?

The Baath representative stressed that the American administration is attempting to distract the attention of American lawmakers and the public with fabricated reports, timelines and announcements that are meant to hide the mismanagement of Bush’s doomed occupation. A despicable and humiliating collapse lies ahead. Unless this Administration restrains itself and acts realistically, the prospect of a great escape like the one from the roof of America’s Embassy in Saigon in front of millions of Americans has now appeared on the horizon. It’s time for Bush to sit down with the Iraqi national resistance and discuss the end of the U.S. occupation and the withdrawal of its forces. It is time for America to keep its commitments, admit that it’s an occupying power that invaded the sovereign and independent nation of Iraq. It is time for America to admit that without any justification, it occupied and destroyed this founding member of the United Nations and ruined the lives of its people.

This report as well as others, are attempts to refurbish and embellish the grim and ugly face of the occupation and to persuade the Iraqi people not to remain committed to the national plan of jihad put forth by the forces of the Iraqi National Resistance, which is becoming ever-stronger, more widespread and influential as it nears the ultimate goal of liberating Iraq and God-willing, restoring its sovereignty, independence and freedom to its people.

America’s colonial occupation of Iraq will bring only shame, failure and decline, all leading to the final collapse and terrible defeat of its forces. This will soon be achieved, with Allah’s help.