EDITORIAL
End the Bloody War for Oil!
Bring the Troops Home Now!

Apr 19, 2004

President Bush has systematically avoided news conferences. But last week was different. The U.S. war in Iraq was spinning out of control. So Bush was shoved onto the stage of a press conference to answer a few questions.

Over the last few weeks, the Bush administration had been going through the charade of preparing to bring a "sovereign"government to Iraq by June 30. This hand-picked government would then "invite" the U.S. military to remain. Of course, this will mean continuing the U.S. occupation–just under another name.

To smooth the way for this fake handover, the U.S. military has been trying to decimate any resistance and terrorize the Iraqi population. A couple of weeks ago, the U.S. military launched a full-scale attack on Falluja, complete with F-16s and Apache helicopters firing into the densely packed city. At the same time, the U.S. military went after people in some of the poorest parts of Baghdad and other cities in the south of the country.

These stepped-up U.S. military operations provoked a huge insurrection in most cities throughout central and southern Iraq. It also united various parts of the population against the U.S. occupation, including the Sunnis and Shiites.

When the U.S. military launched counter-attacks, the insurrectionists just melted back into the population–which only shows that the insurrectionists are not just a tiny minority, as Bush says, but people who are part and parcel of the Iraqi population.

In the face of this, Bush dared say that even though these weeks have been "difficult," it is worth it. He dared say the U.S. is bringing "freedom," "democracy" and "security" to Iraq.

As if you can bring freedom to Iraq by murdering tens of thousands of Iraqis and destroying much of their country.

No, the U.S. government’s very deep interest in Iraq is not "freedom" and "democracy." It is a war for the control over Iraq’s oil. It is a war to further U.S. military and economic control of the Middle East. It is, first of all, a war against the Iraqi people.

But the war in Iraq is also a war against us. And the numbers prove it. The first two weeks of April were the bloodiest weeks since the start of the war. And U.S. casualties were the highest.

From the start, Bush has lied to justify this war: the weapons of mass destruction, the terrorists, the costs of the war, declaring major military operations complete, and now–the final insult–that it is a war for freedom.

Bush has had plenty of company in telling all these lies, starting with the Democrats. Today, Kerry and Kennedy may criticize Bush, pretending that he misled them into supporting the war. As if they didn’t know what was so obvious to the millions of people all over the world, who took to the streets to demonstrate against the war. But they all make it crystal clear, they intend for the war to go on, no matter who wins in November.

None of these politicians will stop this war because the U.S. ruling class really intends on keeping control of Iraq and its oil. It will end only when the people in this country decide to end it. The Viet Nam War was not ended by the politicians, but by the social movements in this country, starting with the movements against the war by the soldiers themselves.

Everyone knows that the U.S. soldiers don’t want to be in Iraq. They hate the war. Support them, by fighting to bring everyone back immediately.