Iraq – mobilise to withdraw the troops

THEY ARE counting the votes in Iraq but the body count is still rising. As
we go to press, early results of the partial Iraqi election are beginning to
come in. But the death toll mounts as resistance to the US-led occupation
continues.

Dave Reid

It is clear that the elections will solve nothing for the Iraqi people. How
can real elections take under the guns of a foreign occupying force? So long
as the US occupation forces remain in Iraq then there can be no peace and the
ethnic divisions in Iraqi society will widen even further.

The majority of Sunni Iraqis, 20% of the population, did not vote in the
elections in protests at the occupation and in fear of the violence. And the
crowing of Bush and Blair appears hollow now that the early election results
show that the vast majority of the Iraqi Shia population voted against the US
occupation and its puppet government, led by Allawi.

Despite millions of dollars of support by his US backers, Allawi’s bloc
looks like coming a poor third in the election. Even though many Iraqis in the
Shia-dominated South have deep misgivings about a religiously dominated
government, the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) backed by Ayatollah Sistani will
be the biggest grouping in the National Assembly.

This is because Shiite voters believed that voting for the UIA was the best
way to get rid of the US occupation.

Shiite clerics may stop short of enshrining Sharia law directly into the
constitution but they will demand a dominant position in the new constitution
that will threaten to divide Iraq even further between Shias, Sunnis and Kurds
and threaten a bloody sectarian conflict.

Mass movement

The only way to avoid a descent into further sectarian division would be to
build a mass movement of the working class and oppressed masses, cutting
across all ethnic divisions, that can lead a force capable of ending the
occupation of Iraq.

Then it would be possible to call for the convening of a constituent
assembly of democratically-elected delegates to prepare a workers’ and poor
farmers’ government, leading to a socialist confederation of Iraq with
national and minority rights.

The Bush regime cannot extricate itself from the quagmire that it has sunk
into in Iraq. The Sunni insurgency against its invasion is growing according
to CIA reports and if there are no immediate positive results from the
National Assembly the CIA expects it to spread to Shiite areas.

Blair, following the US lead, will not withdraw British troops unless
forced by a mass movement in Britain against the occupation. According to
opinion polls over 60% in Britain are opposed to the occupation and this
opposition must be mobilised.

The 19 March demonstration called by the Stop The War Coalition can be a
step towards bringing the troops home.