Source: http://www.marxist.com/MiddleEast/iraqi_resistance0403.html
By:red Weston
When the Bush administration was planning its war against Iraq a key element in its thinking was that the people would rise up against Saddam Hussein and welcome the US and British forces as liberators. This has clearly not happened. One explanation they are now giving is that the regime is so brutal and repressive that the people would only rise up once they are sure that Saddam Hussein has definitely been overthrown. That however is wishful thinking. There is clearly more to it than that.
The resistance that we are seeing is not simply the act of a desperate regime. The fact that this regime is doomed is evident to everyone, and yet the people of Iraq are not moving to overthrow it. They see the main enemy as the invading imperialist armies. The latest spin on this from the TV screens is that there seems to be no forces ready to take on the US and British forces. Baghdad apparently seems to have no defences. But the more serious reporters can see what the US and British governments would like to hide from us.
Robert Fisk, who writes for The Independent, has described the real situation on the ground south of Baghdad. He says that anyone who has any doubts about the readiness of the Iraqi army to defend the city should take the road that leads south out of Baghdad. He describes mile after mile of trenches, defence canals, underground bunkers, hidden artillery and army divisions. According to Fisk he has never seen the Iraqi army so prepared for war since the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war! He explains that the Iraqi military have become masters of disguise. He adds that the army does not seem at all weakened and ready to give up. Far from it! And he explains how this war is becoming more and more a war of national liberation.
"Few Iraqis doubt - even the ministers in Baghdad speak about this - that the Americans could, ultimately, occupy the country. They have the force and they have the weapons to smash their way into every city and rule the land by martial law. But can they make Iraqis submit to that rule? Unless the masses rise up as Bush and Blair hope, this is now a nationalist war against the most obvious kind of imperial power." (Robert Fisk writing in The Independent, April 1, 2003)
Whatever the US imperialists may think about the Iraqi people we can state quite clearly that they have an instinctive understanding of the nature of imperialism and they also have a long historical memory. They understand that the US and the British have not come to invade their country in the name of some abstract democratic principle. They have come to loot the resources and wealth of Iraq. They understand that it will be the Iraqi people who will pay for this. This opposition to US imperialism expresses itself in the form of national pride, of Iraqi nationalism. It is also arousing Arab nationalism across the whole of the Middle East. This is perfectly logical.
We have to distinguish between the nationalism of the powerful imperialist nations and that of the poor oppressed "underdeveloped" nations. The nationalism of the rich and powerful is an expression of the rapacious interests of the capitalist class that is out to exploit the peoples of the world. The nationalism of the peoples of the poor, underdeveloped and exploited nations is an expression of their anti-imperialism, and therefore it has a progressive content to it.
By:red Weston
When the Bush administration was planning its war against Iraq a key element in its thinking was that the people would rise up against Saddam Hussein and welcome the US and British forces as liberators. This has clearly not happened. One explanation they are now giving is that the regime is so brutal and repressive that the people would only rise up once they are sure that Saddam Hussein has definitely been overthrown. That however is wishful thinking. There is clearly more to it than that.
The resistance that we are seeing is not simply the act of a desperate regime. The fact that this regime is doomed is evident to everyone, and yet the people of Iraq are not moving to overthrow it. They see the main enemy as the invading imperialist armies. The latest spin on this from the TV screens is that there seems to be no forces ready to take on the US and British forces. Baghdad apparently seems to have no defences. But the more serious reporters can see what the US and British governments would like to hide from us.
Robert Fisk, who writes for The Independent, has described the real situation on the ground south of Baghdad. He says that anyone who has any doubts about the readiness of the Iraqi army to defend the city should take the road that leads south out of Baghdad. He describes mile after mile of trenches, defence canals, underground bunkers, hidden artillery and army divisions. According to Fisk he has never seen the Iraqi army so prepared for war since the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war! He explains that the Iraqi military have become masters of disguise. He adds that the army does not seem at all weakened and ready to give up. Far from it! And he explains how this war is becoming more and more a war of national liberation.
"Few Iraqis doubt - even the ministers in Baghdad speak about this - that the Americans could, ultimately, occupy the country. They have the force and they have the weapons to smash their way into every city and rule the land by martial law. But can they make Iraqis submit to that rule? Unless the masses rise up as Bush and Blair hope, this is now a nationalist war against the most obvious kind of imperial power." (Robert Fisk writing in The Independent, April 1, 2003)
Whatever the US imperialists may think about the Iraqi people we can state quite clearly that they have an instinctive understanding of the nature of imperialism and they also have a long historical memory. They understand that the US and the British have not come to invade their country in the name of some abstract democratic principle. They have come to loot the resources and wealth of Iraq. They understand that it will be the Iraqi people who will pay for this. This opposition to US imperialism expresses itself in the form of national pride, of Iraqi nationalism. It is also arousing Arab nationalism across the whole of the Middle East. This is perfectly logical.
We have to distinguish between the nationalism of the powerful imperialist nations and that of the poor oppressed "underdeveloped" nations. The nationalism of the rich and powerful is an expression of the rapacious interests of the capitalist class that is out to exploit the peoples of the world. The nationalism of the peoples of the poor, underdeveloped and exploited nations is an expression of their anti-imperialism, and therefore it has a progressive content to it.