------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the July 8, 2004 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
AS FAHRENHEIT 9/11 FEVER GRIPS U.S.: BREMER PASSES CONTROL OF IRAQ TO NEGROPONTE By Deirdre Griswold L. Paul Bremer III, the president's pro-consul, has slipped away from Iraq after a hastily staged "handover of sovereignty" ceremony in a secret bunker two days ahead of schedule. But he leaves behind 140,000-- and growing--U.S. troops, plus what will be the largest U.S. Embassy in the world, headed by Ambassador John Negroponte. After the torture scandals, the exposures of profiteering by Vice President Dick Cheney's close friends at Halli bur ton, the growing war- weariness among troops whose tours of duty are being extended, and now the swing of public opinion inside the United States against the war and occupation in an election year, are the empire builders who run this country finally going to find a way out of the disaster they have created and allow the Iraqi people to pick up the pieces and rebuild their country? Certainly the administration is scrambling to "Iraqize" the occupation, just as Richard Nixon announced he would "Vietnamize" that horrible imperialist war after taking office in 1969. It took four more years, however, and horrendous casualties among the Vietnamese people, as well as the deaths of 15,000 more U.S. troops, before the bulk of U.S. forces were withdrawn from Vietnam. And it was two additional years before the last helicopter took off from the U.S. Embassy building in 1975, even as the victorious socialist forces were entering Saigon to a cheering populace. This transfer of the image of authority in Iraq is even thinner than Nixon's was. The ceremony in which Bremer crowned Ayad Allawi as "interim prime minister" betrayed the utter dependence of this small group of exiles-turned-puppets on U.S. military muscle. The Iraqi people weren't informed of the event until after Bremer had left the country. It was held in utter secrecy and two days early because the actors feared they would be literally blown up by the powerful resistance that now seems to be everywhere in Iraq. Needless to say, there were no celebrations in the streets. It was the most perfunctory and phony "transfer of authority" in living memory. And no wonder. The latest poll had shown that only 2 percent of Iraqis supported the U.S. occupation headed by Bremer--the so-called Coalition Provis ional Authority. And who took that poll? The Coalition Provisional Authority itself. (Washington Post, June 29) There is speculation in the media that the new "government" in Iraq may impose martial law. That would allow it to carry out mass arrests, detentions, military assaults, and so on against those it deems sympathetic to the resistance. But who will really be doing all this? U.S. troops will provide the bulk of the force and violence to be used. Fareed Zakaria wrote in the Washington Post commentary cited above that "for the immediate future, most counterinsurgency operations will remain largely American affairs." The U.S. Army has just announced that it will recall to active duty some 5,600 reservists who had already completed their time in the service but still have a "reserve obligation." Wrote the New York Times on June 29: "The Army is so stretched for manpower that in April it broke a promise to some active-duty units, including the 1st Armored Division, that they would not have to serve more than 12 months in Iraq. It also has extended the tours of other units, including some in Afghanistan. ... "The Pentagon had hoped to reduce its troop levels in Iraq to about 105,000 this spring, but because of increasingly effective and deadly resistance the level has risen to about 140,000. "Military officials have said they may need to stay at that level for at least another year or two, a commitment of forces that could not be maintained by the active force alone." On the civilian side, the person calling the shots in Iraq will be John Negroponte, the new U.S. ambassador. The web site of the Maryknolls, a progressive Catholic order that was deeply involved in supporting social justice movements in Central America, has this to say about his tenure as Ambassador to Honduras in the 1980s: "John Negroponte deliberately falsified State Department human rights reports throughout his time in Honduras. U.S. missionaries and many people of faith and conscience were murdered by the CIA-trained Honduran Battalion 3-16, which Negroponte at best overlooked and at worst oversaw. ... "The New York Times credits John Negroponte with 'carrying out the covert strategy of the Reagan administration to crush the Sandinista government in Nicaragua' during his tenure as U.S. Ambassador to Honduras from 1981 and 1985. He oversaw the growth of military aid to Honduras from $4 million to $77.4 million a year. ... Other documents uncovered a scheme of Negroponte and then-Vice President George Bush to funnel Contra aid money through the Honduran government. "In addition to his work with the Nicaraguan Contra army, Negroponte helped conceal from Congress the murder, kidnapping and torture abuses of a CIA-equipped and -trained Honduran military unit, Battalion 3-16. ... "Sister Laetitia Bordes went on a fact-finding delegation to Honduras in May 1982 to investigate the whereabouts of 32 Salvadoran nuns and women of faith who fled to Honduras in 1981 after Archbishop Oscar Romero's assassination. Negroponte claimed the embassy knew nothing, but in 1996, Negroponte's predecessor Jack Binns reported that the women had been captured, tortured, and then crammed into helicopters from which they were tossed to their deaths." With Negroponte's track record, the U.S. role in atrocities may become more covert than in the recent prison scandals, but it will not be less brutal. MASS ANTI-WAR SENTIMENT NOT REFLECTED BY KERRY It has become common knowledge in political circles, and expressed even in the capitalist media, that the Iraq war was the creation of an ideological grouping of neo-conservatives in the Bush administration long committed to bringing Iraq under U.S. domination, and that they used every type of deception to put across their agenda. What once was revealed only by speakers at mass demonstrations opposing the war can now be heard from political commentators of all stripes. Now the phenomenal success of Michael Moore's documentary film "Fahrenheit 9/11," from the moment it opened in theaters across the U.S., shows that this truth is being embraced by the great mass of the population. That the film, which shows the terrible suffering of both Iraqis and U.S. troops, has shown to packed houses not only in large cities but in places like Fayetteville, N.C., the home of Fort Bragg, must have the military brass very worried about what is going on in the minds of those it thinks of as the bottom of the chain of command. Even with all these signs of continually growing mass opposition to the occupation, however, the position of both the Democratic and Republican parties continues to be that withdrawal from Iraq is "unthinkable." In a statement responding to Bremer's "transfer of power," presidential candidate John Kerry said on June 29, "I believe it is critical that the president get real support, not resolutions, not words, but real support of sufficient personnel, troops and money, to assist in the training of security forces in order to be able to guarantee a rapid real transition, and most importantly, in order to be able to provide adequate security on the ground." Nevertheless, Kerry is seen as some sort of alternative to Bush by a large part of the progressive movement, even though there is little enthusiasm for him. His wife, Teresa Heinz-Kerry, is a billionaire and heir to the Heinz ketchup fortune. If Kerry becomes president, his family will be the richest ever to occupy the White House. According to National Public Radio on June 23, Kerry has actually raised more money for his campaign this calendar year than Bush--$123 million to Bush's $82 million. This shows a shift of big money behind his bid for the presidency. Many members of the ruling class in this country now view Bush as having botched things terribly for them, and they want a president who can achieve their imperialist ends without alienating 95 percent of the world's people. They hope they have found such a person in Kerry. But illusions on both sides about what the election will bring will have a hard landing after Election Day. There will still be huge numbers of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The struggle of the Iraqi resistance to unseat the puppet government and expel the foreign armies will continue and probably grow stronger. Scandals over missing U.S. funds for Iraq reconstruction--like the $20 billion now unaccounted for--will go on as social programs back home keep getting cut back to pay for the huge Pentagon bill. What thwarted the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz plan for a neat, high- tech victory in Iraq was the human factor--the refusal of the Iraqi people to lose the sovereignty they won through their long anti-colonial struggle, plus the rise of a worldwide anti-war movement that put millions in the streets. The hopes for a real end to the occupation continue to rest on the independent, militant resistance of the masses of people. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. 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