Excerpted, edited by Carolyn Bennett

In a statement on Monday ANSWER Coalition coordinator Brian Becker is looking at parallels and at the growing rift in Washington and in the real world about the U.S. war on and occupation of Afghanistan.

"The U.S. public largely opposed the invasion of Iraq while being generally supportive of the invasion of Afghanistan," he says. "That is now changing. Majority sentiment has moved, and will continue to move, in opposition to the plans for a protracted war and occupation in Afghanistan. There is both uncertainty and debate within the Obama administration and among the Pentagon brass about what to do in Afghanistan: continue to send ever more troops; seek a truce with the Taliban and create a government of 'national unity' that includes the Taliban and either Hamid Karzai or another U.S. political puppet; or both.

"Because of the division within the ruling class on its Afghanistan policy, it is possible that the intervention of a mass grassroots movement opposing the war can become a factor in domestic political calculations. This is precisely what happened during the Vietnam War....The real and rarely mentioned goal is now to avoid defeat- or, rather... to avoid the perception of defeat. So tens of thousands more troops are being rushed into Afghanistan because the Pentagon cannot figure out what else to do."

Flashback Iraq: "General David Petraeus became a hero in the imperialist establishment because he was the architect of the so-called surge followed by the announced intention to withdraw from Iraq," Becker writes. Glory and reverential honor befalls the great general not because he put U.S. forces on track to victory - but because his policy may permit the withdrawal of military forces on conditions far less humiliating than the Pentagon's 1970s rushed exit from Vietnam.

Invasion and occupation have consequences foreign and domestic. Iraqi workers have experienced U.S. destruction of their society. They want the occupation to end and they want the people of the United States to pay for what invasion and occupation have cost them.

Revelations from a Democracy Now Monday interview with Iraqi labor leaders portend parallel conditions now and later in post-invasion (occupied) Afghanistan. President Rasim Awadi of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers said [translated], "'... We [Iraqis] still suffer ... the lack of a general labor law, 51 percent unemployment, a complete lack of a stable service sector for workers, a lack of retirement plan, social security and social services for workers....'"

Describing a post-invasion (current occupation) breakdown in Iraqi society, PresidentFalah Alwan (Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq) said, "'What we gained is the devastation of the fundamental basis of the industries and the infrastructure of the society, lack of the rights of the women, reduction of the financial [base] to support or to provide general services. ... There is no law to protect the workers or all—there is no labor law for the workers to protect their rights to organize themselves or to create their unions....'"

It should be noted that similar conditions of breakdown are spreading within the United States and for the same reasons: war (foreign invasions and occupations), government dismantlement, privatization.

In the period following 2003 Falah Alwan said, "The occupation imposed authorities according to dividing the people, dividing the society, according the religion, the language, the tribe; they imposed a so-called governing council. Until now, the authority is still as it was before. They created a religious atmosphere of the society. They imposed very oppressive laws against women, against the workers, and against the whole freedoms.'"

Citing a recent example of the denial of food industry workers' right of assembly in Baghdad, he said, "Authorities refused to give us the right to hold a peaceful demonstration of the 350 workers." Workers were threatened with job loss and privatization or cancellation of their companies, he said.

"'Privatization of the oil is the economical dimension of the occupation itself,'" Falah Alwan expanded on the theme. "'It is the main important issue for the occupation to impose the privatization, but there is a mass that is refusing to permit this project. That is why they are ... privatizing the oil indirectly by the leases or by the contracts with the companies.'"

Separation-privatization-violence is a strategy that keeps the masses or majorities (Iraqis, Afghans, Palestinians, Americans, and others) "in their place" and out of the way of corporate business, resources theft and domination.

In an exclusive interview with PRAVDA.Ru two years ago, Falah Alwan summed up U.S. occupied Iraq as a place where Americans "stay in their bases because they do not know how to maintain law and order and the violence is a direct result of their invasion and occupation - and getting worse. Iraqi society is divided as never before. It is split between sects, religions, languages, ethnic groups.... Inside Baghdad there is a wall separating the various sections of our society, like a Berlin Wall."

"'This is an example of the democracy in the society,'" Alwan concludes the Democracy Now interview. Therefore, Rasim Awadi says, "'we first ask that the American people put pressure on their government to withdraw American forces from Iraq... And, second, we ask the American people to assist us in reinstalling our infrastructure, from education, water, electricity; all these things that have been abandoned in our society.'"

Becker sees scrambling brass and turning tides. "The vast majority of the people of Afghanistan, including large numbers of those who despise the odious policies of the Taliban, revile the colonial character of the occupation. As the bodies of civilians pile up in an escalating conflict, hatred grows for U.S./NATO occupiers. The mission is doomed. The people of the United States need to rise up and take to the streets demanding immediate and full withdrawal from Afghanistan."

The ANSWER Coalition organized thousands of people to march on the very first day of the invasion of Afghanistan. October 7, 2009, starts the ninth year of the invasion of Afghanistan. On that day, anti-war actions will occur in cities and towns throughout the United States of America. Anti-war actions will occur as well on Monday October 5 and Saturday October 17.

On the eighth Anniversary of the War on Afghanistan -
Back to the streets
Protests set for October 2009!

Sources

"Iraq and Afghanistan will never accept colonialism - Gen. McChrystal, Pentagon scramble to avoid appearance of defeat" (Brian Becker), Monday, September 21, 2009, http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?news_iv_ctrl=-1&abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=9211&autologin=true&AddInterest=2961&link=full-statement

Excerpted from a statement issued by Brian Becker, National Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition Posted at Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (A.N.S.W.E.R.)
"Iraqi Labor Leaders Denounce US Occupation & Iraq's Anti-Labor Laws,"
September 21, 2009 Democracy Now interview http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/21/iraqi_labor_leaders_denounce_us_occupation
Rasim Awadi: 1970s Vice President for the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions in Cairo and current President of General Federation of Iraqi Workers, a group comprised of three federations created by Iraqi workers following the 2003 invasion. Falah Alwan: 1990s, until the invasion in 2003, an underground labor activist working in textile factories and retail stores, current President of Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq.
"Falah Alwan - 'Iraq is an international question,'" October 3, 2007, http://english.pravda.ru/world/asia/98129-falahalwanart-0
http://answer.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ANS_homepage
Posted by Bennett's Column at 2:01 PM 0 comments
Labels: ANSWER Coalition, anti-war movement, Falah Alwan, out of Afghanistan-Pakistan-Iraq movement, out of Iraq, Rasim Awadi, U.S. foreign and domestic policies, U.S. occupation and war

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Dr. Carolyn LaDelle Bennett -author, independent journalist Blog: Today's Insight News Blog: http://todaysinsightnews.blogspot.com/
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