Fw: The Antiwar Movement and the Iraqi Elections

["Nello peacelink" <n.margiotta at peacelink.it>]

Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2005 9:21 PM
Subject: The Antiwar Movement and the Iraqi Elections


The Antiwar Movement and the Iraqi Elections


1) Election Under Occupation

The media theater called the Iraqi election is under way. 
U.S. television anchor people are broadcasting live from 
Baghdad, breathlessly describing the preparations for 
Sunday's display of so-called democracy.

It is important to emphasive the circumstances under which 
this election is being held.  More than 150,000 U.S. 
troops occupy the country, patrolling the streets with 
guns trained on Iraqi civilians.  Iraq is under a state of 
emergency, with expanded police powers and a curfew.

This is and election at gunpoint, which will be supervised 
by U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte.  Negroponte built an 
impressive resume as a brutal enforcer of U.S. policy 
through murder, rape, and torture. Negroponte served as 
U.S. Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-1985; a period 
during which Honduras was the launching pad from which the 
Reagan administration conducted its violent attacks on the 
people of Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The 
U.S-backed atrocities, which were condemned by the 
International World Court in the Hague, included 
kidnappings, rape, torture and killing of suspected 
dissidents. Reports from the Inter-American Commission on 
Human Rights in Honduras alleged that Negroponte oversaw 
the expansion of U.S training camp and military base on 
Honduran territory, where the U.S. trained Contra 
terrorists, and where the military secretly detained, 
tortured and executed Honduran suspected dissidents.

This is the person the Bush Administration would have us 
believe is going to bring democracy to Iraq.

Assisting him will be two US-funded organizations with 
long records of manipulating overseas elections on behalf 
of U.S. corporate interests, the National Democratic 
Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and the 
International Republican Institute (IRI).  These groups, 
both of which are tied to covert plans to install 
US-favored regimes overseas, are among organizations that 
have been given more than $80 million for political 
activities in Iraq.

Both organizations work closely with the National 
Endowment for Democracy and the U.S. Agency for 
International Development, long used by the CIA for covert 
operations abroad.  They were, for example, involved in 
orchestrating the failed coup and recall referendum in 
Venezuela in an attempt to remove the democratically 
elected and popular President Hugo Chavez.

This election is being conducted at gunpoint, administered 
by a war criminal, and stage-managed by CIA front 
companies.  To pretend that this has anything to do with 
democracy is outrageous.  The Iraqi people recognize this 
--among expatriates, 90 percent haven't even bothered to 
register to vote on Sunday.

What, then is the purpose of the phony election?  It is 
actually directed at the U.S. public, which is growing 
increasingly disillusioned with the war.  The sole intent 
of the election is to provide legitimacy for the 
occupation, to marginalize the resistance movement, and 
create an illusion of progress.  The election, like the 
phony transfer of power, will change nothing on the ground 
in Iraq.  On January 31, the day after the election, more 
than 150,000 U.S. troops will still occupy Iraq, the 
torture chambers of Abu Ghraib will still be full of Iraqi 
prisoners, and CIA employee Iyad Allawi will still be the 
U.S.-appointed dictator.
  

2) The Iraqi People Have Already Voted -- Against the 
Occupation 

The Iraqi people have already expressed their will; they 
are overwhelmingly opposed to the occupation of their 
country.  The majority of Iraqi people want the U.S. 
troops to leave and do not believe that the U.S. and 
Britain should be involved in holding elections in Iraq, 
according to several polls.

Many have already cast their ballot against colonial 
occupation by joining the nationwide uprising.  The 
intelligence chief for the puppet regime in Iraq, General 
Mohamed Abdullah Shahwani, admitted that the resistance 
now numbers more than 200,000.

The resistance is made up of many difference forces, with 
different ideologies and goals.  They are united by the 
determination to free their country from U.S. occupation.

The right of people to resist occupation by arms is a 
basic right recognized under international law and the 
Geneva Convention.  The people of Iraq have a right to 
fight back against the occupation of their country, the 
torture of their people, and the bombing of their cities. 
They also have a right to expect the solidarity of all 
who oppose the criminal war.  It is not the role of the 
antiwar movement to debate the ideology or tactics of the 
resistance; it is our job to stand in solidarity with them 
and do everything possible to assist them by working to 
end the occupation of their country.


3) What Next for the Antiwar Movement?

The phony elections will not silence the Iraqi resistance. 
It is important to remember that in the months since the 
last time the U.S. attempted to put an "Iraqi face" on the 
occupation, with the phony transfer of power and 
appointment of Iyad Allawi as puppet dictator, the 
resistance has spread and become more sophisticated and 
more entrenched.

As the resistance grows, we in the U.S. have an obligation 
not to be deterred by false elections or talk of 
"timetables."  We must stand with the people of Iraq and 
take up their demand: the immediate, unconditional, and 
complete withdrawal of all U.S. occupation forces.

We must organize a united struggle to end the occupation. 
This is now more important than ever before.  George W. 
Bush made it clear in his inauguration sermon that he 
intends to wage continual, global war.  We must meet his 
call to war with renewed determination and unity.

The global antiwar movement has called for massive 
protests on the weekend of March 19-20.  In the U.S., the 
Troops Out Now Coalition is organizing local and regional 
demonstrations to demand an end to the occupation, 
including a massive regional convergence on Central Park 
on March 19.  The International Action Center, part of the 
Troops Out Now Coalition, calls upon all progressive and 
antiwar organizations to join us in the streets on March 
19 & 20 to demand: "Troops Out Now!"