Wednesday, April 09, 2008

The Iraqi resistance did not begin after April 9, 2003 when the US forces finally invaded Baghdad. It began from the days when the US army entered southern Iraq after the "Shock and Awe" air bombing campaign.

Political and military analysts have argued that Iraqis didn’t resist well and that Baghdad was swiftly taken within few days by the US forces. There is a little truth in this analogy and conclusion. It took the US forces three weeks from March 19 to April 9 to finally get a foothold in Baghdad, longer than both the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli wars put together.

The most devastating military confrontation was the airport battle in the early part of April. At first the courageous Iraqi army and Saddam’s Fida’yeen caused the US forces a large number of deaths, which has not been covered by any media since then. Many eyewitnesses have seen Saddam Hussein himself fight in that battle. In one of my trips to Iraq in 2004, both the driver and the front-seat passenger have informed me of their participation in that battle. One of them witnessed Saddam’s involvement indicating that he fought courageously. The estimates by eyewitnesses (mainly Iraqi fighters) of the number of killed US soldiers were more than 1800 in this battle alone. So the government’s official number of US deaths (as 4,120) is far from the truth. Later on April 4, the US forces began an intensive bombing campaign on the airport and the surrounding areas killing an estimated number of more than 12,000 Iraqis. The numbers of deaths from both sides during the airport battle, which lasted four days, were never documented.

Two main reasons why the truth about this battle was blocked from media coverage;

1. After the high number of deaths and losses in the airport battle, the US used its superior technology, of which Iraqis had none, by unleashing vicious and intensive bombs on Iraqis. The characteristics of these bombs were to damage the brain instantly and melt the body without causing damage to the buildings.
   
   
2. Following the bombing campaign and taking over the airport, the US shut down all neighboring electricity stations and telecommunications to ensure the secrecy of activities and prevent the media from covering what had happened in the few days prior to April 10. Additionally several eyewitnesses saw a huge-black airplane landing in the airport causing people to speculate that it was for the transfer of a large number of corpses.

The other important reality about the Iraqi resistance was that its armed activities were not interrupted for long; they took place immediately after the occupation forces occupied Baghdad. Yet the US military and the majority of world media have long denied its presence and insisted on referring to it as attacks by terrorists or insurgency whose "objective is to interfere with the rebuilding of IRAQ." The world media, especially industrial western, continued its campaign to discredit the Iraqi resistance by falsifying its intended goal claiming that its members were geared to kill Iraqi civilians.

In fact, as of March 2007, the Brookings Institution released a report indicating that 75% of the documented attacks were directed at the occupation forces and 17% were directed at the Iraqi government forces, yet only the remaining 8% of the attacks aimed at civilians receive continuous media coverage.

The undermining of the Iraqi resistance’s role continued through the end of 2006 when some resistance groups challenged the US-UK claims by posting video clips of their resistance activities on the Internet showing clearly how they kill US soldiers or destroy their military equipments and vehicles. At the beginning, such films were short and sometimes unclear, but by the end of 2006, there were longer and detailed versions of their activities with narration and patriotic songs, and sometimes with brilliant analyses in English as well. In 2007, the famous English subtitled, online film about the sniper of Baghdad (which appeared before and after the claim by the US and German media that he was killed) showed footage of over one hundred soldiers being killed by his bullets providing data on the number of soldiers and officers whom he shot. Not to mention the fact that his film provided information and footage about the training he had done to give birth to other snipers.

It is no coincidence that these severe losses suffered by the occupying forces were simultaneously accompanied by the highest wave of terrorism and forced migration committed against Iraqis. The year 2007 scored the highest (ever) number of Iraqis who were threatened and forced to leave their houses and relocate, to which the media indulged in presenting it to the world as internal conflicts between Shiites and Sunnis. But Iraqis of all backgrounds have come to the realization that the presence of the US-UK-Iran-Israel funded and trained militias and mercenaries has been behind these threats and forced migration of Iraqis to prepare the ingredients for the division of IRAQ.

The US has failed in nearly all its attempts to control Baghdad, never mind the whole IRAQ. If representatives of the US and UK embassies who reside in the green zone area have been living underground for over two years to avoid the extensive mortar and missile attacks, then one comes to the only conclusion that it has been utterly challenging and unsuccessful for the occupiers to take control over Baghdad. Never in the history of European and US colonialism (in Africa, Asia, Australia and America) such example of underground-living condition by the occupiers has been witnessed.

There is no reason or any indication that this failure would shift gears toward any form of success especially putting in mind the status quo of the USA and its dire economy. However, to insure the complete deterioration and near-future end of this savagery campaign by the US-UK-Iran-Israel collaborative, the various factions of the Iraqi resistance must immediately unite, and for the Iraqi public to begin financing the resistance and organizing a serious campaign of economic and political resistance and boycott. No matter how successful it has been, the Iraqi resistance alone cannot end the occupation without the financial and moral support of the Iraqi public, including the wealthy or financially comfortable in exile.

Sources:

1. Global Security

2. You Tube Interview 

3. Video

4. Al-Jazeera Video

5. Video on Resistance

6. Brookings Report 

7. Baghdad Sniper Videos

8. You Tube Video

9. Zennobia

www.uruknet.info?p=42910

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