Stop the War Coalition Newsletter
No 2006/6: March 27, 2006
Email office@stopwar.org.uk

THE WORSE IT GETS, THE BETTER IT IS

"We have now reached a turning point," says George Bush, celebrating
the formation of a "unity" government (not united enough, however, to
fill the key posts of security and defence.)

There have been so many of Bush's "turning points" in Iraq that we
don't have space to list them all here. Examples are: the bringing
down of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad in April 2003; the capture
of Saddam in December 2003; the killing of his sons in July 2003; the
"handover of sovereignty" to a provisional Iraqi government in June
2004; the national assembly elections in January 2005; the adoption of
an Iraqi constitution in October 2005; the start of Saddam's trial in
December 2005; the parliamentary election the same month; and now, in
May 2006, the announcement of a "unity" government, which, in the
words of Tony Blair, is a "new beginning" that will allow Iraqis "to
take charge of their own destiny".

Meanwhile, the United Nations reports that in the last two months
alone, 2500 Iraqis have suffered violent deaths and over 85,000 have
been have been forced to flee their homes (http://tinyurl.com/knhus).

If you listen to Bush and Blair, the worse it gets, the better it is.
The reality is that they have achieved the impossible in Iraq. In the
words of Iraqi Anas Al- Tikriti, "Not only have they managed to
contribute to a climate in which human rights can be violated in far
worse ways than they were under Saddam's Ba'athist regime, they have
actually driven Iraqis, all Iraqis, into openly stating that life was
much better under Saddam, something that this writer, like most
Iraqis, never, ever imagined possible only a few years ago."
( http://tinyurl.com/p65dl )

The "unity" government is the last throw of the dice for the US/UK
occupation. Their armies now spend almost all of their time protecting
themselves and the myth of "nation building" has been conclusively
exposed as the reverse of the truth.

The idea that a sovereign and independent government is now
established in Iraq is nonsense. According to the New York Times, the
US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, was the "tireless midwife in
the birthing of the new government" ( http://tinyurl.com/qcpu9 ).

Nuri al-Malik, the latest US placeman to become prime minister, has
wasted no time in announcing what his American patrons want from him:
he will use "maximum force" to pacify a country which has become one
of the least safe places on the planet. Clearly, the idea is for
Iraqis to exert "maximum force" in killing each other, instead of the
US army doing the mass slaughter in person. Bush and Blair's talk of
occupation troops being withdrawn is a sham. They are hoping they can
command Iraqis to do more of the killing and being killed, which may
enable a cosmetic withdrawal of a small number of troops to give the
impression that Iraqis are taking "charge of their own destiny".

An ex-US soldier, 20 year-old Jessie Macbeth, having returned from
Iraq sickened by his experiences, spells out in a truly shocking video
what the "maximum force" activities of the US army have entailed over
the past three years. It is essential viewing. Macbeth says, "We are
the terrorists. We're the ones terrorising a whole nation. I didn't
sign up to kill women and children. Occupation Iraqi Freedom is
Operation Iraqi Slaughter." (To watch the 20 minute video, go to:
http://tinyurl.com/eshbx )

This is what we need to recall when Tony Blair flies to Washington to
meet George Bush this week to rejoice over a "new beginning" for Iraq.
There will be nothing new in Iraq while a single foreign soldier
continues to occupy the country. There will only be ever increasing
levels of killing and chaos, which is all the Bush and Blair war has
brought to the Iraqi people.