Christian Parenti, freshly back from a visit to Baghdad, just said on my radio show that Iraqis aren't happy with the occupation, but most not to the point of taking up arms against it. He also said that he was frequently told: "Take our oil. You want it, take it. Just give us electricity, water, and basic security." Later, off air, he said that a (Coxian) U.S. pullout at this stage would result in total chaos. The position of the Iraqi Communist Workers Party, one of the rare secular leftist outfits left in the country, is for the UN to take over from the U.S. - with no U.S. involvement at all.
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With the exercise of only a little empathetic imagination, it's not difficult to understand the attitudes Parenti's reporting.
People have children to raise, aging parents to look after, homes to attend to and dreams of a stable life with time and safety for a normal range of pursuits. Taking up an AK47 or an RPG against American soldiers is the very last thing most want to do.
When I read that Iraqis told Parenti "take our oil but give us stability" it struck me as being a weary cry for a normal life - geopolitics be damned.
If the occupation had been well planned (or planned at all), providing basic amenities, public security and at least the plausible appearance of local management it would have taken longer for a credible resistance to arise.
Several years would have passed, after which the Iraqi people, relatively secure in their homes but chafing under the exploitative rule of foreigners, would have organized against American dominance. The oil ministry that they happily might give away now would, later, be understood anew as a stolen national treasure managed for the benefit of North Americans.
First marches and speeches, then guns.
A reliable pattern.
But the Americans lost their chance to enjoy this period of calm before the inevitable storm by being super-powered bunglers who can't even get imperialism right.
Now the Afghanistan/Lebanon/West Bank pattern is settling in.
The Iraqi people have been placed in a horrible situation: the Americans are there to plunder and have brought chaos and death with them. Yet, if they leave, even worse chaos might unfold. The UN might be a relatively better option but is it able to secure a huge and complex country?
This is like depending upon an arsonist to fight fires.
DRM
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