regime change = ? (was Re: "Hitchens' nervous breakdown")

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>As it was said under a previous Bush, the ideal government
>in Iraq from Washington's perspective would be Saddam's regime without
>Saddam.  What is the basis for supporters of the war believing this has
>changed?
>
>The piece on Saddam's successors fwd'd opened with this:
>
>>  Saddam, of course, has never had a problem with making enemies.
>>  Indeed, the breadth of the Iraqi opposition -- from Islamic
>>  fundamentalists and communists to monarchists and
>>  free-marketeers -- demonstrates his ability in this respect.
>>  Seemingly every week a new group springs up and issues an
>>  identikit statement to the international media. Recently one
>>  organisation, which nobody seems to have heard of except its own
>>  members, even took over the Iraqi embassy in Germany to prove
>>  that it existed.
>>
>>  There are, however, some basic patterns to the cacophony of
>>  proclamations from new movements, councils and parties that
>>  purport to represent the voice of the authentic Iraqi individual.
>>
>>  First, there are the national bodies that were created inside Iraq
>>  before 1990, when the bond that had formed between Iraq and the
>>  US was shattered by the invasion of Kuwait. These are groups like
>>  the Iraqi Communist Party, the largest group in Iraq from the 1950s
>>  through to the 1970s, and al-Daawa al-Islamiyya (the Islamic Call),
>>  which engineered the biggest demonstrations against the Iraqi
>>  regime in the 1970s and had close ties with Ayatollah Khomeini's
>>  Islamic revolutionaries in neighbouring Iran.
>>
>>  With extensive experience of organisation and the political process
>>  inside Iraq, many of these groups retain some level of support -- or
>>  at least respect -- among many of the Iraqi people. They have three
>>  things in common: they are intensely persecuted by the Iraqi regime,
>>  they are wholly unpalatable to the West, and they strongly oppose a
>>  US invasion on the grounds of the suffering this will cause the Iraqi
>>  people.
>
>-- Shane

Cf.

*****   Iraqi Communist Party:

No to War Option and Dictatorship

Solidarity with Iraqi People for Freedom & Democracy

As US threats to wage war against Iraq increase, under the cover of 
its "war against terrorism", and while the dictatorial regime of 
Saddam Hussein resorts once again to brinkmanship policy to remain in 
power at any cost, the Iraqi Communist Party has declared its firm 
opposition to the war option and called for international solidarity 
with the Iraqi people and their patriotic forces, against war and 
dictatorship; for freedom and the democratic alternative: a unified 
democratic and federal Iraq.

At its recent meeting, the Central Committee of the party dealt in 
detail with the objectives of US policy towards Iraq and the area, 
its intention to bring about "regime change", and the strategy of 
"pre-emptive strikes".  The party also exposed Saddam Hussein's 
regime "desperate efforts to defend its rule, trying not only to 
mobilise forces to avert the external threat, but also, first and 
foremost, to contain the popular resentment which threatens to 
explode". The rulers continue to put their selfish interest "above 
the people's national interest", refusing to allow the return of UN 
weapons inspectors, and thus "preventing action to spare our people 
and country looming dangers".

In this context, the Central Committee also noted the mounting 
opposition to American unilateralism, which is 
voiced by "governments, social movements, political forces and 
sections of the world public opinion". This growing movement has, at 
the same time, "rejected the dictatorial regime in Iraq and its 
practices, and its delay in implementing UN Security Council 
resolutions with regard to enabling UN weapons inspectors to return 
to Iraq".

The meeting drew attention to "the grave dangers caused by reliance 
on the war option and foreign military intervention as means for 
change". It said that "numerous experiences have proved that they 
leave behind death, destruction and tragedies, and do not bring about 
democracy. For achieving democracy relies mainly on the participation 
by the masses of people and their political forces in the process of 
change".

The Central Committee stressed that "achieving change is a task for 
our people and their armed forces, led by the alliance of patriotic 
opposition forces, and with legitimate international support".

N.B.:  Extensive excerpts of the Communique, issued by the meeting of 
the Central Committee, are published on the web site of the ICP: 
www.iraqcp.org .

<http://www.iraqcp.org/framse1/002831Iraq%20News(English)31-8-2002.htm>  *****
-- 
Yoshie

* Calendar of Events in Columbus: 
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>
* Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>