Things Fall Apart

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1904962.ece
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article1904932.ece

It is so depressing to read the news out of Iraq. Things are even worse than most critics of the war predicted. What’s happening there goes beyond insurgency- it is the disintegration of the basic trust that’s necessary for communities and countries to hold together and function.

Why the death squads in Iraq? The Shi’ite death squads target Sunnis, suspecting them to be "terrorists", while Sunni terrorists target Sh’ites. Interestingly enough, a couple of years ago American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh wrote an article alleging that certain people with the American occupation forces were encouraging the formation of death squads to counter the mainly Sunni insurgency. After all, that strategy had worked in Central America in the 1980's. Remember also that a couple of years ago the occupation forces had a close call when Sh’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s militia briefly rose up against occupation forces following the razing of the mainly Sunni town of Fullujah, raising the prospect of a united Sunni/Shi'ite uprising against the occupation. Occupation forces reeled against the onslaught and it was soon recognized that Sadr would have to be placated to keep the insurgency mostly Sunni. Today, Sadr’s army commits some of the worst sectarian atrocities with virtual impunity.

It seems likely that what is now a civil war is the consequence of U.S. "divide and conquer" tactics. Recently it’s often been reported that occupation forces and Iraqi army units stand by while death squads go into neighbourhoods. Briefly, the sectarian violence provided an argument for the occupation, but now that it’s clearly out of control the U.S. policy, if that’s what it was, has backfired, and very, very few people see the occupation forces accomplishing anything positive.

Those responsible (Bush, Blair and co.) may now say that tactics need to be revisited, but who will be held accountable for the breakdown of a society?

To be fair, it was a society already under heavy strain before the 2003 invasion. Saddam Hussein long favoured the Sunnis over the Sh’ites, brutally suppressed Kurdish and Sh’ite uprisings, and got Iraq into ruinous wars, while the United Nations gave its blessing to the U.S., U.K., Canada and other countries as they first demolished Iraq’s infrastructure, then subjected its people to ruinous sanctions. There is plenty of blame to go around, but few will be held accountable, although Saddam will likely be hanged or shot or otherwise disposed of. After all, when the game is imperialism, it’s never the imperial masters who bear the brunt of any violence- it’s those on the recieving end of imperial policies. Plus ca change...