American Positioning in Iraq

The follies of the current government have produced a separation between Iraqi politics and the actualities of Iraqi life — in keeping with the American shock doctrine, which was used against Iraq beginning with the American invasion, continuing through the occupation and ending with America’s political, military and economic repositioning there, as exampled by its rejection of the election results and the ousting of the government.

It has been observed that the decision to invade Iraq was a testament to the greed of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, who devised the doctrine of “Shock and Awe” in order to leave Iraq vulnerable to foreign economic exploitation.

The invasion hopelessly upset the structures and rhythms of everyday Iraqi life. As security disintegrated, the Iraqi people became preoccupied with attaining but the basics of life: water, electricity and sustenance. Iraqis must now protect themselves from killings, abductions and the destruction of property. Little time is left over to address the fact of the American occupation and the ensuing process of economic exploitation.

As the cloud of misinformation and the torrent of American propaganda pass, we can see that there is no popular administration, no true democracy — especially after the U.S. president entered the picture — and no governmental, parliamentary or executive assembly in Iraq, despite the elections in which the Iraqi people voted to no avail.

Certainly, the American invasion had this insidious objective: to leave Iraq rife with political, sectarian and ethnic struggles until the sale of the country is complete.

The destabilization of Iraq has strengthened the hand of the American occupiers. The American military occupation in turn reinforces the current political class, which is, for the most part, politically powerless. Consequently, the parliament approved the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which ensures the continuation of the U.S. military presence and its selective military work. The oil and gas law was also passed.

In particular, the fourth article of the Status of Forces Agreement, entitled “Missions”, (put into place by the formerly existing government of the United States) outlines the cooperative operations with the government with regard to four main concerns.

First is al-Qaida. Iraq, as former U.S. President Bush said, is the central theater in the War on Terror, although this so-called war is in fact commercial and ideological in nature. Using Iraq’s security forces against the people under the guise of combating “terrorism” is one of the bases of the American shock doctrine.

Second are “other terrorist groups”. In American eyes, the national resistance to the occupation is “terrorist”, and so is treated as such. Thus, the illegal pursuit, targeting, torture and killing of Iraqi fighters — activities etched indelibly in the minds of all Iraqis and recorded even more reliably in official American records, which were recently released on the site WikiLeaks.

Third are the “outlaw groups”. Again, any national effort opposed to the United States and Iran, the bringers of change, is portrayed as rebellious and illegal. And since the Iraqis most vociferously resisting the occupation and its Iranian counterparts are for the most part Sunni, it is on the Sunnis that the “outlaw” label falls. Thus, the terrorism label is in practice a largely sectarian construction.

The fourth concern are “remnants of the former regime”. This, too, is a mostly sectarian construction, devised to cast suspicion on members of the Sunni majority. But of course, to discredit the internal resistance is but the first step along the way of raiding Iraq economically. By substantially exaggerating the size and capabilities of the remaining members of the former regime, Iraqi society was torn apart.

The latest phase of the occupation features the continued presence of 50,000 marines, as well as 90,000 mercenaries and an army of spies that totaled 60,000 Iraqi agents — not to mention the various tools of Iranian penetration, which work in harmony with the American scheme. Thereby, Iraq will remain in a state of violent anarchy while America and its clients will continue to wave the banners of the “Global War on Terror”, the “Democratic Experience”, and a “Haven for Planes”, etc.