[lbo-talk] the Iraqi resistance at work

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 11/20/06, James Heartfield <Heartfield at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> Yoshie says
>
> "What's clear is that those who have taken up arms against the
> occupation are divided multiply: some are Shi'i militiamen, like the
> Mahdi Army; others are Sunni guerrillas of diverse political
> tendencies; and yet others are foreign jihadists.  Among them, the
> only faction whose political program we know even a little about is
> the Mahdi Army.  The conditions in Iraq are so dangerous that it is
> impossible for us to get reliable accounts about who's who of
> combatants in Iraq."
>
> But it seems more likely that the lack of clarity is in the movement, not in
> the conditions. I think you are imposing a logic of resistance and
> oppression to conditions that do not support it. Of course it is true that
> Western propaganda paints every resistance as sectarian, just as it seeks to
> divide and rule. But here it does seem to be the case that what divides the
> Iraqis is more pertinent than what unites them.
>
> You say they take up arms against the occupation, but they seem to take up
> arms against each other. Is this a bloody process of political
> clarification, like the FLN's struggle against the Messalists in Algeria, at
> the outset of the war against France? I don't think so (though, like you
> say, we are all a bit ignorant here).  They are not clashing over strategy,
> but over territory. They are emboldened by the coalition's declining
> authority, but that has not led to the emergence of a decisive leadership,
> just a bloody competition.

I don't necessarily disagree with you.  I thought that Iraq was on the
way to becoming an Afghanistan (the likelihood I discussed earlier
this year) due to the rise of sectarian attacks and counter-attacks,
and I still think that is the most likely scenario in the short term.
But there are nationalists like Moktada al-Sadr in Iraq, who may
eventually prevail, though that's a long shot.  In my view, it is
important for us not to ignore the nationalist current, though it has
not -- and may never become -- hegemonic.  If and when the nationalist
current succeeds in establishing a new government, defeating sectarian
currents, we should do what we can to restrain the Western governments
from imposing crushing economic sanctions on it.

-- 
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
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