Escalating Chaos Points The Way

by Karen Button

A few days after the US Army found that none of its top brass being investigated for wrongdoing at Abu Ghraib were guilty, the interim Iraqi government announced the formation of its new government.

The next day, last Friday, 17 separate car bombs blasted the Iraqi capital in the largest number of explosions yet in one day, marking the latest wave of violence that has left over 200 dead. The deadliest attack took place less than a day after the Iraqi government was sworn in, despite missing such key posts as the ministries of Defense and Oil and without Sunni participation. On Tuesday, a suicide bomber killed 50 people in a police recruitment office in the Kurdish city of Irbil, making it the most deadly explosion in the last two months. In April alone, over 550 people have been killed. With 200 dead four days into May, this month could be even worse.

With violence so acute, much of the media attention is directed there. Yet the backdrop to this violence is a daily bleakness that includes rampant unemployment, food shortages, water and electrical shortages, and a medical crisis in which many doctors have fled the country leaving those behind in a struggle to keep victims of the fighting alive with outdated equipment and severe lack of medical supplies or medicines

Iraq is in absolute chaos. There is no doubt that the Anglo-American invasion created that chaos, nor that the ongoing occupation is feeding it. The Iraqi resistance almost exclusively targets those they see as complicit with the occupying forces. Yet an argument rages within the left between an immediate or a more protracted US troop withdrawal. This was recently exemplified by a debate on Democracy Now! between Nation columnist Naomi Klein and Erik Gustafson of the Education for Peace in Iraq Center, with Klein calling for immediate withdrawal and Gustafson worried that doing so would leave Iraqis in an even more precarious situation.

The Democrats, on the other hand, don’t even bother with debate. Instead, they are pitifully absent in the discussion. With very few exceptions, they line up behind Mr. Bush’s rhetoric and endless demands for more money to feed the war machine. Howard Dean, touted during the presidential primary as the anti-war candidate, came out in support of Mr. Bush’s current Iraq policy last month after being elected Democratic National Committee Chair.

Air America Radio, “radio for the left” and claimed by most to be an extension of the Democratic Party, rarely mentions anything but “staying the course” in Iraq. Some, like Counterpunch’s John Walsh, allege there is actual censorship and that those who talk about withdrawal are silenced.

Without Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War leading the charge, there would be few voices calling for a clear withdrawal.

In a recent interview that is typical from these vets, Iraq Veterans Against the War’s Patrick Resta bluntly criticized the US government for its role in Iraq and its deception to soldiers:

"Pretty much everything I saw in Iraq convinced me that US forces needed to leave. The in-your-face hypocrisy of this occupation was the most disturbing thing for me. Being told I was risking my life to help the Iraqi people and then getting over there and being told the Pentagon had set policy so no Iraqi could be treated unless they were about to die. The hypocrisy of the occupation was evident when I was told we were going to help rebuild Iraq and then watched as the only things being rebuilt were Saddam's military bases to prepare for a permanent US military presence. Every reason this administration gave to justify our presence in Iraq was the exact opposite of what was going on. While in the towns I would talk to Iraqis hoping to hear something that would make the sacrifices of my fellow soldiers worth it. What I found is that we are neither wanted nor welcome. The Iraqi people don't trust us and they don't want us there. Poll after poll has made that clear."

The argument that an immediate US departure will create chaos in a country marked by the chaos its very presence is creating is like a dog chasing its tail.

Support for the war in Iraq is the lowest it’s been, with 57 per cent of Americans now saying the war is not worth it.

So what is George Bush doing to address the spiraling violence in Iraq and American’s growing dissatisfaction with being there? He is talking about social security.

No wonder his is the lowest approval rating for any president since World War II at this point in their second term.

Now is the time to push George Bush and demand that US troops leave Iraq. Iraqis and Americans both will be better served when we’re out.