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RED HOT: TRAYVON MARTIN
CHINA,
AFGHANISTAN, FIGHTING RACISM, OCCUPY WALL STREET,
PEOPLE'S POWER, SAVE OUR POST OFFICES, WOMEN, AFRICA,
LIBYA, WISCONSIN WORKERS FIGHT BACK, SUPPORT STATE & LOCAL WORKERS,
EGYPT, NORTH AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST,
STOP FBI REPRESSION, RESIST ARIZONA RACISM, NO TO FRACKING, DEFEND PUBLIC EDUCATION, ANTI-WAR,
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JOBS JOBS JOBS,
STOP FORECLOSURES, IRAN,
IRAQ, CAPITALIST CRISIS,
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SOCIALISM,
GAZA
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Iraq resistance still growing
By
David Hoskins
Published Feb 19, 2006 8:23 PM
Recent events illustrate just how much the U.S.
and British governments were caught unprepared for the developing Iraqi
struggle. The occupying governments were not ready for the level of resistance
to their presence. Attempts at militarily defeating the resistance have failed,
despite the diversion of 22 percent of the so-called reconstruction budget
toward military contractors and away from the water and sewage projects the fund
was allegedly created for.
Resistance forces have gained skill and
experience in the three years following the U.S.-led invasion of their homeland.
A wave of armed action has swept the country after the puppet Iraqi elections,
the resumption of President Saddam Hus sein’s trial and the upcoming third
anniversary of the invasion. On Feb. 13, nine police officers and the head of an
Islamic party collaborating with the U.S. occupation were killed as guerrilla
forces targeted police and government officials.
Just three days earlier,
two U.S. marines were killed when their vehicle detonated a roadside bomb. The
death toll for British soldiers in Iraq eclipsed 100 dead at the beginning of
February. Meanwhile, Iraq’s leading Sunni political alliance has
threatened a campaign of strikes and civil disobedience. The alliance is
demanding that the Interior Minister and aides resign, that Interior Ministry
security units stop operating, along with the release of all prisoners held at
Iraqi administered camps. The alliance claims that the current Iraqi government
is targeting civilians in the name of defeating “terrorists.”
Occupation forces are struggling in the face of a growing armed guerilla
movement and the threat of a civil disobedience campaign against the puppet
government. A recent report by the U.S. General Accounting Office says that the
number of attacks in December 2004 were 250 percent higher than in March of the
same year. Insurgent forces engaged in almost 3,000 armed actions in October
alone. Most attacks targeted the occupying coalition forces. There has been an
increase in the number of actions taken against Iraqi security forces now that
they have become operational.
The GAO report cited a senior military
officer who admitted that the insurgents were able to rearm and attack
repeatedly because “the insurgent groups…are an intrinsic part of
Iraq’s population.” This gives the lie to earlier notions that
resistance forces were somehow outside the mainstream of the Iraqi population.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
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