After the occupation of Iraq: where to go?

May 2003

We should not fail to recognize our complete failure to prevent the invasion of Iraq. Another failure in a long list. It is not enough to count numbers of people against the war and feel good that we were many. We again ran against the wall and into the traps with no hope left to ever get through if we don't change the way we try.

Iraq withstand 13 years of attack

The 13 years of UN/US attack against Iraq can only be understood as a coordinated sequence of actions. The mass extermination of more than a million Iraqi people was so obviously caused by political decisions, that no one can easily claim not to have known about it. There can be no excuses for our ignorance and cruelty as societies. Whoever still believes what is coming down from the authorities does so because they decide to subjugate themselves and go along with whatever crime those authorities commit. The Western democratic totalitarian societies created an example that they are willing and able to exterminate mercilessly and destroy a country to maintain and expand their control and increase their profits.

From the use of Kuwait and UAE to attack Iraqi interests all through 1990, the systematic destruction of Iraqi infrastructure and production capabilities in 1991, the creation of US/UN protectorates in Northern Iraq and Kuwait, the most comprehensive sanctions, blockade and embargo ever imposed upon any country to prevent Iraq from rebuilding and recovering or even importing enough food and medicine, 12 years of constant violations of Iraqi airspace with thousands of bombing raids, theft of Iraqi revenues by the UN and reparation claims awarded without even giving Iraq a chance to present their case, to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, every phase worked towards the goal of mass extermination and humiliation to break the spirit of the Iraqi people and subject them to foreign rule.

Some thoughts to mention

The U.S.A. throughout its history did not show any intention or ability to live in peace with other peoples or nations. The very foundation of this country is mass extermination, extreme exploitation and widespread destruction of living things. There is no hope that this may change any time soon. Quite the opposite, with its economic and financial power eroding, and capitalist crisis deepening, the only means to hold on to its dominance remains, and increasingly will be, the use of military force.

The US troops are the enemy of all peace loving people. A troop is a military entity employed to execute whatever it is commanded to do. They are a key component of the war machine and the ones who actually commit the crimes. No military can function without the loyalty of its soldiers. There is only dishonor and shame in being enforcers for the oppressors.

The UN are nothing but a tool of crime. The UNSC is something like a permanent Berlin Congress dividing the regions of the world and their riches among the Great Powers. We only need to look at the recent example. While all focus was on the verbal controversy among the Great Powers, many missed to see the cooperation on the ground. UNMOVIC was spying on Iraq and even destroyed some of its few short range missiles, while the US/UK bombed the country and prepared to invade. As soon as they were ready for the invasion, the UN moved out and stopped the Oil for Food program. How convenient, that most of the Iraqi export revenues are on an UN escrow account in New York with no direct access for Iraq. After the invasion the UN is continuing to assist the occupation and the plunder of Iraq.

MRBMs and atomic bombs can provide deterrence. It can hardly be denied, that even a few atomic bombs and medium or better long range ballistic missiles give a defending country some credible threat of retaliation, and therefore deterrence of potential aggressors with far superior forces. The U.S.A. and it's allies work against the proliferation of missiles and ABC-weapons exactly because they don't want to be deterred from their aggressions in any serious way. Our movement should insist that all countries have the right to have whatever weapons they decide. Atomic weapons offer much more in terms of their defensive potential. Their usefulness for offensive military aggression are very limited. Should it not be an acceptable option for countries to build up a serious defensive posture to support their independence?

Relief organizations as a support function of the aggressors. With the end of the Cold War, Western relief organizations and other humanitarian NGOs became mainly a military/political support function for the totalitarian societies.

The case of Afghanistan is most illustrative here. Before the US aggression few funds were available for relief activities in Afghanistan. The mass extermination of Afghani people through hunger and diseases was fueled by UN sanctions in midst of a long and severe drought. The military aggression brought international relief activities to a halt and dramatically increased the number of refugees, exactly at the most critical time with the winter approaching which makes large areas of the country inaccessible. Only months later, when the invaders had taken over and 'secured' certain areas, those relief organizations would come back operating closely with the occupation forces.

Although large sums were now made available by the coalition of aggressors to consolidate their gains, not even the Afghani regime, installed and maintained through the occupation, has much say about where and how relief goods are distributed, or what the goals and priorities of development are.

The 'war on drugs' and 'war on terrorism' are propaganda terms for total war. A certain propaganda based upon an issue strongly attached to fear is used to legitimize a wide range of oppressive and repressive operations against a wide range of targeted people and groups. Strong emphasis is on demonization of the victims and secrecy of investigation and evidence to keep people ignorant. The ones who are defining what a terrorist act is and who will be on the target list are the Great Powers and their friends who want to crash or prevent any serious opposition and resistance against their schemes.

IMF/WB/WTO/UN are about maintaining command and controling development. Supranational and multinational organizations like IMF/WB/WTO/UN are cornerstones of the political/economic structure we are living under, serving the totalitarian societies and their friends to maintain command and control development. The system is dominated by the transnational companies and financial markets and enforced by NATO and the Pentagon. The multi- and transnationalization of capital and production and inter- and multinationalization of politics and enforcement is an effort to further extend the dominance of the West and continue to plunder, accumulate, waste and destroy the resources of the earth.

An 'International Criminal Court' would just be one more institution to support the totalitarian rule. Who would set the standards and definitions? Is it more likely to see the demonized victims of Western aggression or the aggressors indicted or convicted? An 'International Criminal Court' will be nothing but another instrument of political justice legitimizing the crimes of the mighty. While might doesn't make right it indeed makes rights.

The concept of 'universal human rights' is a totalitarian concept based upon the doctrine of white supremacy and western cultural and moral superiority. Western civilization proved itself clearly as the most destructive and deadly in history as far as it is known. Rights which are declared but not practised are no rights but lies. We should blame the human rights talk for what it is: ideological warfare to defend western civilization, intervention and dominance against others.

Democracy is the best system to secure compliance of the populations of industrialized societies. Democracy as defined by the West proved to be the best political structure to complement capitalism in industrialized societies. It enables a relatively flexible political management of conflicts within a society while ensuring hegemony of the corporate sector over the political process. The use of sophisticated propaganda and brainwashing techniques and the creation of a true mass society of disconnected and lonely people allowed the rise of democratic totalitarian societies. The individual has no influence whatsoever but gets the illusion of free speach and voting.

There will never be peace with justice worldwide. The dream may feel good while it is dreamt, but it is nothing but a totalitarian phantasy if applied to reality. Who would define what justice and peace is? No vision or definition will ever be for all peoples. The perspective of continued worldwide Western democratic totalitarian rule offers nothing but desparation, death and destruction. But the worst totalitarism imaginable are world governmental and judicial structures imposing and enforcing standards and norms upon all of us. Today, the demands of worldwide democracy and human rights for all pose the most serious threat for the great majority of people worldwide.

Privilege for Compliance

It is very important to acknowledge the fundamental contradictions between different groups of people in the transnational production, distribution and consumption networks. The lifeways of the highly industialized societies depend on exploitation and theft. Domination is the only relationship which can keep the Western culture and societies alive. Although particularly in the U.S.A. millions of people are forced to live in poverty and brutal living conditions with more than 2 million people imprisoned, the majority of people are subsidized from the profits generated by forced and cheap labor, plundered resources and unequal financial relations. Privileges in terms of money, consumption and power don't come for free but have to be paid with compliance. Like the old saying goes 'whose bread I eat, whose song I sing' (and flag I wave).

It should be obvious to everyone that, while we can agree on this or that particular issue at least temporarily, there is no way to get masses of people if only to communicate with each other, not to mention agree on changes which would profoundly effect their lives with lots of unforeseeable consequences. Weak and insecure personalities faced with fundamental changes in the ways we communicate and live will always back down in fear of failure and loss, holding on to what they have. A large majority of people in the Western industrialized societies are firmly anchored within the fences of the system, with no hope to ever break out.

We should also understand, that the system of oppression, death and destruction we are living under will never go away peacefully. And it will never be orderly reformed away either. It can only be destroyed and the more complete the better it will be. Our lifeways are not only unsustainable, but brought death and destruction in historically unknows dimensions. The Western societies won't really change without being physically forced to do so. Armed struggle will always be a necessary and important part of any serious movement for fundamental change, as a tactical means, to be used together with all the other means at our disposal.

We should position ourselves in fundamental confrontation with the Democratic Totalitarian Societies (DTS) we are living under and refocus our efforts to weaken any multi- and transnational structures and organizations, both governmental and non-governmental in general, and the economic and financial networks and communication in particular. In acknowledgement of our history of interventions being plunder, destruction, massacres and mass extermination rejecting any intervention into the affairs of other peoples for whatever reasons or wherever it may be. For radical decentralization of communication and competence with self-reliance and self-determination on the smallest scale possible.