Category: News

We’ve all heard the big lies that led to the war in Iraq. First it was that Iraq was behind 9/11. Easily proven false. Then it was that Iraq had WMDs. Also proven false, but it took longer for it to become accepted among the public. The next lie was that the United States government cared about democracy in Iraq. This idea is still widely accepted by the mainstream press, and as a consequence, the public still generally believes this as well. The more honest reporting does not make this assumption.

One idea that still receives rather universal acceptance is that violence is largely sectarian. Sunni against Shiite, Shiite against Sunni. However, Anthony Arnove’s Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal put forth the claim that the majority of violence in Iraq is pro-occupation against anti-occupation, and anti-occupation against pro-occupation. So, Iraqi police, government, and military are pro-occupation. Remove the American occupation, he says, and you remove a majority of the violence.

I hadn’t heard this idea before reading Arnove’s book, and he didn’t provide much evidence, so I was a bit skeptical. But after reading it, I started paying attention to why massive amounts of Iraqis are being killed over there. In the news articles, they usually say where the killing was done. At a market, at a police ceremony, at a military checkpoint, at a school, et cetera. You can easily separate the sectarian killing from the occupation-influenced killing. And this isn’t meant to be a thorough study, but I have noticed that since I have been looking for it, the vast majority of Iraqi-on-Iraqi killing is indeed anti-occupation against pro-occupation, or vice versa. I am just ashamed that I hadn’t noticed it before, on my own. And of course this is to say nothing of US against Iraqi violence and Iraqi against US violence.

I, of course, was an advocate for withdrawal all along. It is not our country, and the overwhelming majority of Iraqis want us out. This alone is reason enough for us to leave. But having a clearer picture of what is going on in Iraq just reinforces the case for withdrawal for me. Not only do we have no right to be in Iraq, but if we leave the violence will likely drop significantly.

A couple days ago, the mercenary company Blackwater was at the center of a rather large incident in Iraq allegedly involving a dozen or two dead Iraqi civilians. There are conflicting reports, depending on who you want to believe, from the US State Department, the Iraqi government, and eyewitnesses at the scene. Some say the Blackwater employees were fired on first, some say they were responding to an exploded bomb, some say the bomb was too far away for that to be the reason, some say that it was because a civilian car (mother and child) ignored an order from police to stop and was slowing moving into the intersection, prompting the firefight. I have my preferences on who and what to believe, you have yours.

In the end, it doesn’t matter. What it all boils down to is that the Iraqi government has ordered Blackwater out of Iraq. It’s their country, so it should be up to them, no? Evidently not. The US government and Blackwater are basically saying that the Iraqi government has no jurisdiction to kick Blackwater out. I think this is really going to blow up into a much larger issue than it already is.

Imagine if an Iraqi mercenary group were in Washington D.C. protecting Iraqi officials, and they were ordered out of the country by the US government and refused. Imagine the uproar that would ensue. Fortunately for the US government, we get what we want and those folks would be out of here and/or imprisoned faster than you can say quagmire.

For some really great entertainment, listen to or watch yesterday’s Democracy Now. Blackwater expert Jeremy Scahill has a debate, about halfway through the show, with a security/mercenary firm trade group representative. For some decent reading on the issue, I found today’s NY Times article to be quite good (page A12, or I am guessing on their website).