[NYTr] Iraqi Resistance Demands Recognition, US Withdrawal

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Woprkers World - Oct 25, 2007 issue
http://www.workers.org/2007/world/iraq-1025

Iraqi resistance demands U.S. withdrawal and recognition

[Workers World managing editor John Catalinotto participated in
interviews in Madrid on Oct. 10 with Abu Muhammed, a spokesperson for
both the post-invasion Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party in Iraq and for the
Supreme Command of the Front for Struggle [Jihad] and Liberation in
Iraq (FSL), whose formation was announced Oct. 2. This front is one of
the major coalitions or fronts of organizations that participate in the
Iraqi National Resistance (INR) to the U.S. occupation.

This was the first set of interviews by an official representative of a
major coalition of the Iraqi resistance outside the Middle East. He
came to Spain at the invitation of the group CEOSI
(iraqsolidaridad.org) and held media, political and institutional
meetings.

There are other coalitions that also group thousands of Iraqi
resistance fighters. While sharing many of the same goals as that of
the Front for Struggle and Liberation—especially that of driving out
the U.S.—these other fronts may have a different assessment of their
relative strength, of the exact role of Iran, of the exact role of the
Ba’ath Party, etc. There is a possibility of continued and growing
cooperation among these fronts.

These fronts, however, don’t consider Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army part
of the resistance, although the U.S. treats the 100,000-strong Mahdi
Army as a hostile force.

Abu Muhammed, who did his graduate studies as a medical doctor in the
United States, was a university professor in Baghdad during the Saddam
Hussein government. Since some of his remarks have been translated
twice, from Arabic to Spanish to English, it is more appropriate to
paraphrase them here for readers’ information rather than treat them as
exact quotes.]

Statements by Abu Muhammed to the Spanish
Campaign Against Occupation and for the
Sovereignty of Iraq (CEOSI).

We in the Supreme Command of the Jihad and Liberty in Iraq are
resistance fighters against the U.S. occupation. We want to make it
clear that there were no terrorists in Iraq before the start of the
occupation. There was no al-Qaeda in Iraq before the U.S. occupation.
We condemn the attacks of al-Qaeda against civilians.

Izat Ibrahim al-Duri, who was a general in the Iraqi army and a vice
president in the last Iraqi government before the invasion, and who is
secretary general of the Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party in Iraq, is chief
of the Supreme Command of the 22 nationalist and Islamist groups and
parties that have joined together in a front.

Regarding the Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party in Iraq, it was not and is
not a dictatorial party. We believe in nationalism. The situation
existing in Iraq in the last decades, the challenges the party faced,
led to a centralized party under Saddam Hussein. Since the occupation
the party has evolved from being a party in power to being a party in
the resistance. We believe in pluralism and in a new democratic vision.

Our party made errors in the past. There was good and bad done during
Saddam Hussein’s regime. The party is not locked in old ways. We are no
longer a centralized party or a dictatorship. After liberation we will
continue to be pluralist. We will participate with other parties in
elections.

Regarding the attempt to divide Iraq, the truth is that Iraq is now
living under an occupation and under those who support the occupation.
The occupation and its supporters are parties that have militias made
up respectively of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. These parties have death
squads. Some of them cooperate with Iran. We in the resistance
represent more than 80 percent of Iraqis from all parts of Iraq. In a
recent survey made by USA Today, the majority of Iraqis are for the
resistance and against the occupation, and are for a democratic and
pluralist Iraq. The system of the one-party regime is over.

We in the armed and unarmed resistance are the only road to
independence and stability for Iraq. We will continue to resist until
the defeat of the U.S. or until the U.S. accepts a withdrawal. We will
only accept negotiations if the U.S. recognizes the rights of Iraqis.
Otherwise, we will continue the resistance.

There were more than 1.5 million Iraqis killed during the sanctions
period [1990 to 2003] and more than 1 million more Iraqis killed since
the invasion. On the U.S. side, the 3,700 deaths reported are only the
Marines. It doesn’t include the mercenaries, and as many mercenaries
function in Iraq as do U.S. troops. The mercenaries are in action more
than the Marines, in Falluja, Samarra, and other cities.

The Pentagon has estimated that there have been a total of 54,000
actions against U.S. troops by the resistance. If you estimate at least
one death for every two of these actions, that means 27,000 deaths.
This number includes U.S. troops and mercenaries. Now the resistance
makes 177 operations every day.

The majority of Iraqis in the country are fighting or are supporting
those who are fighting. There are no mountains, no forests in Iraq, and
we have no help from neighboring countries. The Iraqis have surprised
the world with their determination to go on fighting despite all the
difficulties and destruction.

Message to U.S. population from Iraqi resistance

I would like to send a message from the resistance to the people of the
United States.

Bush has humiliated the U.S. people with his invasion and occupation of
Iraq. He has humiliated the U.S. Army as well. It is a shameful blot on
U.S. history for the U.S. to occupy a country which was living in peace
and was stable and one of the developing countries.

Bush and his administration lied to the U.S. people, telling lie after
lie regarding the causes of the occupation of Iraq and the events that
were taking place inside Iraq. He also lies about the number of U.S.
Army troops killed.

Regarding the alleged causes of the war, first the U.S. raised that
Saddam Hussein had a dictatorship and that he possessed nuclear and
chemical weapons, the so-called weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), and
also that Saddam Hussein had relations with al-Qaeda. By now the U.S.
leaders themselves have pulled back from this claim. They have
recognized that these reasons were false and that no one can show that
there was a relation between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. No one found
WMDs in Iraq.

Indeed, if the Bush administration had really believed that Iraq
possessed WMDs, then it would not have invaded Iraq.

Since the invasion was based on these lies and the U.S. leaders knew
they were lying, it means that the U.S. government is responsible for
all the consequences of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. This
includes the existence of al-Qaeda in Iraq, since there was no such
organization in Iraq before the invasion and no one in Iraq had heard
of al-Qaeda.

There are many negative results of the U.S. invasion: the interference
of Iran in Iraq; the sectarian fighting in keeping with the political
agenda; the militias and the death squads that belong to the parties
that cooperate with the occupation or which belong to the government.
All these results lead to a seriously bad condition in Iraq, as well as
the lack of services such as social services, health and water. The
mass killing of the people and their imprisonment without cause, the
stolen wealth of Iraq, were all caused by the occupation of Iraq and
the U.S. is responsible.

The resistance began its development starting in the early days of the
occupation, growing at first gradually day by day until it enlarged
quantitatively and qualitatively, and is now all Iraqis from all
different national groups, religious groups, sects, Kurds and Arabs,
Sunnis and Shiites, Christians, Turkmen, etc.; all Iraqis. According to
USA Today and CNN, 80 percent of all Iraqis support the resistance.

The resistance is fighting the U.S. army and killing U.S. soldiers in
Iraq, not because they are people from the U.S., but because they are
occupiers of Iraq.

Program of the resistance

The policy of the resistance is to liberate Iraq. After that it will
form a temporary council from the different groups and political
parties that have rejected the occupation. This includes all those that
have left the political process organized by the occupation and are now
resisting. This temporary council will select a transitional government
that will rule for two years. It will also establish a national
constitution. At that time it will initiate a law for parties to run
candidates. This is a new vision of the Ba’ath Arab Socialist Party and
of the resistance.

The project and strategy of the resistance is that the U.S. and its
allies should recognize the rights of Iraq and the Iraqi people. These
include:

• Recognition of the Iraq National Resistance as the military and
political representative of the Iraqi people.

• Complete and unconditional withdrawal from Iraq.

• Cancel all laws and structures that were passed under the occupation.

• Set all the prisoners of the U.S. and the government free.

• Compensate the state and the people of Iraq.

• Stop invading homes and harassing people.

If the rights of Iraqis are recognized and the U.S. is ready to
implement them now, representatives of the Iraqi National Resistance
will be ready to sit with the U.S. directly to put lines in place for
withdrawal of the U.S. Army and hold a discussion of the placing of
bases on the borders with Iran to prevent an invasion, and to make an
agreement to have good relations with all countries whether they be
neighbors or scattered around the world.

Otherwise the resistance will continue throughout generations, whatever
the losses. There would be no stability in Iraq then, until there is a
big defeat of the U.S. Army. The U.S. administration knows very well
what such a defeat would mean, and what the serious results would be.

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