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August 26, 2004
Najaf
As Sistani arrives in embattled and besieged Najaf, Empire Notes compiles news and U.S. military reports and concludes that "it is reasonable to put the death toll for this assault in the neighborhood of 600 to 1000 Iraqis." And death and suffering does not come by bullets alone in a city under siege:
Deaths are not the only cost to civilians caught up in a city under siege. During the siege on Fallujah, the United States bombed the electrical power plant, and the city was blacked out the entire time. In many places, there was no running water (and, as I can attest personally, the water that was available was contaminated). The entire city was cut up into a series of disconnected areas, divided by the no-man's-lands of Marine snipers' firing paths. As a result, numerous civilians lay wounded on the street or in their houses, unable to get to medical care, and with medical personnel unable to pass the snipers to get to them. Oh, yeah, and the United States at the beginning of the assault deliberately closed the main hospital in Fallujah, causing the additional deaths of perhaps hundreds of civilians who might have been saved had doctors had full access to facilities.It may not be quite as bad in Najaf -- the al-Hakim hospital at least is open -- but civilians have been cut off and trapped. Medics in the Imam Ali shrine sent a desperate plea to the Iraqi government for medical relief, mentioning not only wounded in the shrine itself but also at least dozens of wounded civilians trapped in nearby neighborhoods, unable to get to the shrine to make use of the makeshift and incredibly overstretched medical facilities there.
Meanwhile, a mosque where Sadr makes regular appearances came under mortar fire, killing somewhere between 3 and 27 people. The U.S. military says it did not fire on the mosque. Of course, I don't know who fired on the mosque and some people will argue that Sadr or some other insurgent force fired on the own mosque -- you can even increase the plasubility of this scenario by pointing out Sistani supporters were gathered there waiting to march up to Najaf. A more likely scenario seems to point towards the Iraqi forces under CIA-asset strongman prime minister Ayad Allawi, they have already fired on the marchers elsewhere.
But, the thing is, very few people in Iraq are going blame anyone but the United States. Once you are an occupying power, and once you kill enough civilians so that you get a reputation for callousness, the people will blame you for most everything -- some justified and some not.
Isn't it obvious to everyone at this point that more American troops would not help pacify the country but further inflame it? Of course, now that we've installed Allawi in power everything he does will be laid on U.S. shoulders as well, not without some justification. I think Allawi is pretty brutal without American encouragement but the truth of the matter is he would never have been anywhere near power had we not single-handedly installed him there.
This situation simply cannot be won militarily.
Posted by zeynep at August 26, 2004 09:21 AM
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Comments
From a humanitarian perspective it is obvious to all of us that additional American troops will just exacerbate the situation in Iraq. However, as you and many other researchers have abundantly documented American hegemony is not motivated by humanitarian concerns. Rather in this particular case American hegemony is only concerned with establishing military bases in Iraq, installing a puppet government that it can control, and seizing absolute control over Iraqi resources, most notably duh oil. Everything else is way secondary, and everyone but everyone is expendable, most especially Iraqis but also American enlisted military personnel.
And I couldn't agree with you more, Zeynep, that there is no such thing as a military solution to a political problem. Of course, there never has been. But that has not stopped the killing up to now, or at least over the past 8 to 10 thousand years of patriarchal rule.
Sincerely,
Old & In The Way
Posted by: Phil Cicchi at August 26, 2004 08:20 PM