Mass demonstrations in Iraq against the occupation
A statement has been issued by the Shabaan Thuwaar Al-Iraq (= ‘Young Rebels’ but it includes people of all ages and different occupations). It says that:
The emblem of the uprising
The anger of Iraqi people mounts against the regime.
Martyr’s were killed in demonstrations across the country last Friday (25 Feb 2011).
Mass opposition to the regime and the occupation will result in assemblies next Friday 4th March in cities from North to South.
The protestors call for the overthrow the government and end to the occupation.
There has been a curfew in many Iraqi towns and cities and heavy machine guns have been used against the people as indicated by the following report from Iraqi Beacon. Goma’a (Friday, a holiday in Iraq) will see many towns and cities in open revolt against the regime.
Meanwhile in Iraq and Yemen this past week occupation forces did indeed have sharpshooters on the roofs of buildings surrounding public squares “attacking (killing and wounding) massed protesters on the ground (but at least not) with an air-force (although the airforce flew over menacingly in several cities). All over Iraq, in every city and town, American troops and other western mercenaries (including Australians), Iraqi puppet government troops and their private-enterprise militias, and the Iranian special division (for Kurdistan) are involved in oppressing demonstrators and controlling Iraqi cities.
In the end the revolt on the arab street comes down to neo-conservative economics having failed to distribute the wealth among the people.
All the leaders in northern africa and the middle east including Qadhafi and his sons (whether they hold formal titles or not) are the subject of popular revolt.
The US will have influence but to control whole populations especially in the big three countries of Egypt, Iran and Afghanistan is impossible.
It is true the US has the best military in the world – it is the best equipped, the best trained and has the best logistics but has failed in Iraq because Bush did not care to establish control after they had swept through the country. They needed another 500,000 troops on the ground in Iraq but did not deploy them for domestic political & economic reasons and because they (the neocons) did not care.
The US cannot invade the larger countries like Egypt and Iran — the populations are too large to control even with a million troops.
The US is failing in Afghanistan for this reason. So the US is stretched across the region.
Qadhafi & his sons were involved in Lockerbie resulting in horrible loss of life — even his supply of weapons for the IRA became a macabre adventure. He embraced neocon economics that antagonized his own people – Qadhafi became too close to conservatives like Blair & Belusconi. This economic failure is the source of my skepticism of Qadhafi and why I think the Green Revolution has failed.
I do not think the Arab people will accept an occupation (in Libya) by the US but as the Churchill quote says they may exhaust that option before realising its futility.
“The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative.” — Winston Churchill
This is just my opinion, I may well be proven wrong.
