arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

By Mike Whitney
Al-Jazeerah, April 22, 2004

"Thugs and assassins and former Saddam henchmen will not be allowed to carve out portions of that city and to oppose peace and freedom" Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld

“And let us bathe our hands in blood, up to the elbows, And besmear our swords. Then we will walk forth, even to the market place, And waving our red weapons o’er our heads, Let us all cry “peace, freedom and liberty.’” Shakespeare; Julius Caesar

When the dust finally settles in Fallujah the world will have a much better grasp of the real nature of the American occupation. That is the one redeeming aspect of a massacre; it exposes the truth. Up to this point the freedom fighters inside the besieged city have demonstrated impressive bravery in rebuffing the overwhelming force of the US Military. Their tenacity represents the first obstacle to the Bush global onslaught. They have succeeded where the UN, the US Congress and the majority of the world’s population have failed; and they have done so with Kalashnikov’s and a few RPG’s; no mean task. The conflict in Fallujah could have been avoided if the Coalition Authority had a political component. It does not. Just weeks after the fall of Baghdad the US blundered into Fallujah and deposed local officials, replacing them with stooges from the coalition. The angry demonstrations that responded to this outrage were greeted with a hail of bullets that left 20 Iraqis dead. This was the beginning of the resistance. Once again, the Bush Administration was trying to prove that force is a universal remedy that eliminates the need for any political alternative.

The situation in Fallujah intensified after 4 mercenaries were dragged from their burning vehicle and brutally dismembered to the cheers of an approving throng. Footage of the incident appeared on televised media throughout the world. From this point, the situation devolved quickly. The US Marines knocked out the major electrical facility and cordoned off the entire city, trapping 300,000 people in their net. They cut off all food, water and medical supplies in clear violation of internationally accepted humanitarian law and began their campaign of terror. Hospitals were closed and many of the injured townspeople died simply because they were unable to get treatment for their injuries. The continual sniper fire throughout the city made sure that the sniper’s motto of “Kill one, terrify a hundred,” was fully appreciated by the Fallujans. There’s even documented proof that ambulances were fired on. (see Raul Mahajan’s empirenotes.org) The dead sometimes remained on the streets for days until they could be buried unceremoniously in a communal gravesite at the local soccer field. The siege is a duplication of the Israeli strategy of collective punishment; penalizing an entire city of 300,000 for the crimes of the few. The comparison between Fallujah and the West Bank has not been lost on the people of the region and has been amplified in the Arab media. So far, an estimated 600 people have been killed and over 1200 injured. Of those, nearly half of the dead are women and children. (So, we can be certain they had no part in the mutilation of the 4 mercenaries) It is, perhaps, the most disgraceful a display of overwhelming force that we have seen since the My Lai massacre in Vietnam some 30 years ago, and it is not over yet.

Donald Rumsfeld has said that he sees the siege of Fallujah as a “test of wills.” This is consistent with everything we know of Rumsfeld. From the very onset he has supported all the unilateral moves that would that discard prior commitments on treaties, conventions and protocols. He has resisted any compromise with North Korea and is pressing for armed confrontation with both Syria and Iran. He has authored the facility at Guantanamo Bay which claims to be beyond the reach of any legal authority and (we believe) he personally authorized the bombing of Al Jazeera facilities in Baghdad and Kabul. (as well as the attack on the Palestine Hotel which killed an innocent Spanish cameraman) This shows that Rumsfeld believes wholeheartedly in the application of force as the solitary impetus for political change. This mind-set made Fallujah inevitable. Eventually someone was bound to step into the breach and say, “No thank you Mr. Rumsfeld, we reject your sordid world order.”

Fallujah is an ambush. Rumsfeld will win the battle, but it will be a Pyrrhic victory, galvanizing world opinion against the occupation, and making the broader goals of the war unachievable. Already, Spain, Honduras and Dominican Republic are exiting the Coalition; a sad reflection on the maligned objectives of the American involvement.

So, the trap is set. Rumsfeld will be Rumsfeld; he can be expected to respond with overwhelming force. He has already said that he won’t wait indefinitely for the gunman to surrender; that’s all we’re counting on. He will enter Fallujah and crush the resistance at great cost to American servicemen and innocent Iraqis. And, in doing so, he will expose the true nature of both the Bush Administration and American occupation; a murderous farce conducted in the interest’s of corporate America. (Consider the 60 oil giants that divided up Iraq’s resources even prior to 9-11: Cheney’s Energy Papers)

We are reminded of Che’ Guevara’s advice, “Make the enemy reveal himself as the true, hated criminal.”

However the siege of Fallujah ends, the heroism of the people who engaged the world’s only superpower in defense of their country is already writ large in Iraq’s history. It’s bound to be regarded as the first chapter in the modern Iraqi revolution and the genesis of a resurgent Arab nationalism. Whether it also marks the decline of America’s squandered world dominance is left to be seen, but it seems likely.