ICP (cadre) contribution to the Iraqi resistance demo in Vienna, Jan 17, 2004

The Situation in Iraq

Comrades! Friends!

When Baghdad fell, we wept with grieving hearts. We Iraqis are always grieving; we have grieved since remote antiquity. But our grief is the grief of lions. And the lion does not change its nature, whatever injury and affliction he has suffered. Perhaps it is for this reason that God has chosen to test us with the enormity of the Anglo-Zionist occupation of Baghdad. Baghdad was occupide and we wept. We shed tears. But our grief has come to an end or has been set aside as the lions of Shan…‘ar are springing to attack in an offensive that will be remembered for generations. This attack will one day allow the world to breathe a sigh of relief, when the enemy has been defeated, and the small will lead the great in exclaiming, Lord, how beautiful the world has become!

As you know the Iraqi regime was allied with America in the period of the 1970s and 1980s. The US therefore supported it with all sorts of products of its armaments industry including chemical weapons. The link between the Iraqi President and US presidents Carter, Reagan, and Bush before the 30-nation aggression against Iraq in 1990 was Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. Cheney´s companies supplied Iraq with poison gas technology. In view of this fact, the current American Administration decided to edit the statements of Saddam Hussein before presenting them to any court, if, in fact, they ever do take him to any court.

In 1990 the American Administration decided that Saddam Hussein had rebelled against them and used Iraq´s attempt to regain Kuwait as an excuse. It mobilized the armies of thirty states, most of them mercenaries looking for crumbs from the American table, and struck Iraq. The US thereby declared the
beginning of a new age in international relations: an age characterized by the following:

1. The supremacy of the logic of power over the logic of dialogue, or as the Americans call it "trouble shooting" in their international relations. The role of the United Nations was canceled any time it got out of American control. America became like a spoiled child who must be given whatever he wants even if it´s your own head, and you have no right to call him to account or judge him, particularly since he will take it upon himself to tell you "sorry."

2. Reckless defense of one state – "Israel" – against all peoples.

3. Spreading silly claims such as that of "anti-semitism", "terrorism", "fundamentalism", "clash of cultures", and so forth.

4. That is to say, in sum, the US returned the world to the primitive law of the jungle, negating, thereby, the laws and norms and all that humanity had acquired over the course of its civilized career.

Based on the logic of force and threat against the countries that disobeyed America, the US imposed an embargo on Iraq for 13 years, and two million children and elderly persons died as a result. Cases of cancer and deformity still appear by the dozen and will continue to appear so long as the depleted uranium remains in Iraq´s soil. Let everyone be assured that the embargo was imposed on Iraq not because it
possessed weapons of mass destruction but because it destroyed them and refrained from using them despite what America says. This is the truth which the world will soon discover simply by trying Saddam openly in The Hague and not in Guantanamo!

During the embargo the militariat of America and of its little lap dog Britain prepared to invade Iraq. Despite what the weapons inspectors of the United Nations said about Iraq having no weapons of mass destruction, despite what Iraq said, the most ferocious and anti-people capitalist and the sincere student of the secret world government, Richard Butler, was the most rabid advocate of killing the children of Iraq, the most lying in his claims about weapons. He was, in any case, a servant at the beck and call of his master and functioned in the framework of the preparations for the invasion. Ignoring what the peoples of the world declared in their many-million demonstrations in nearly every country on
the globe, and oblivious to the resolution of the United Nations rejecting war, the Americans invaded Iraq. They imagined, as a group of traitor stooges had told them, that the Iraqis would greet them with flowers and incense.

In the first days of the invasion the aggressors encountered the fierce resistance of the Iraqis in defense of their homeland, whether in the south of the country or on the outskirts of Baghdad where at the Battle of the Airport 900 invaders died in a matter of a few hours, most of them beaten to death. As a result, the American aggressors resorted to the use of poisoned gas, killing some Iraqi soldiers as others
withdrew to act on the final plan which was to engage in guerrilla warfare. In this way the invaders entered Baghdad.

What is the situation now, after the occupation and since Bush announced the end of military operations in Iraq? Today unemployment is rampant. Poverty now afflicts not less than 70 percent of the population. Inflation is rampant. There are shortages of basic goods, up to the shortage of oil in Iraq, the land of oil. Chaos has slit the tendons of the society and thieves, pimps, and white slavers are running wild, to the extent that there are fixed prices for virgins and
non-virgins as determined by the market law of supply and demand. In the past, in the days of Saddam "the dictator" whom the Americans came to "free the Iraqi people" of, only persons involved in politics had reason to be afraid. But today, after our so-called "liberation" (!!!) not only politicians, but everyone alive, in particular the women, are afraid. Women do not dare to go out into the streets for fear of being
kidnapped and sold on the white slave market. For your information, the price of a virgin is $400; the price of a non-virgin is $200, or so, depending on how old she is!!

So it is. And as we know, security is the responsibility of the occupier, according to international convention. But the occupier, after the Iraqi army was disbanded, has been incapable even of protecting itself. Meanwhile a handful of no-account opportunists who go by the name of the so-called "Governing Council" sit under the occupier´s butt and sing his praises, even as they torture and rob at will, take bribes, sell favors, and trade in appointments for patronage. In the last five months of the career of the so-called "Governing Council" the amount of bribes changing hands has exceeded $4 billion.

The Americans came in violation of international law, in violation of the will of the Iraqi people. The came as invaders. They occupied our country. The destroyed our scientific and educational institutions, our infrastructure, and all that we built throughout the history of the modern Iraqi state. They ruined all the gains that our people have achieved in social
and cultural advance. Today they have pushed us back centuries, and they will continue to push us even further back in order to control us. They came and occupied our country and now they demand that we pay the bill for this occupation which brought us a corrupt Council, afflictions, and suffering. So far, Iraq is indebted to the United States for $180 billion
– the direct cost of the war. In addition to that they have assessed against us, from now until whenever God frees us from this, a charge of $10 billion per month. To both of these figures must be added the interest which they do not omit to charge, and in addition to all that they are charging Iraq $100
billion as "reparations" to go to Iran for the costs of the First Gulf War. On top of this, the Halliburton Company paid one night´s commission of $25 million to Condaleezza Rice, just in order to secure her help in getting the contract for rebuilding the port of Umm Qasr and the Diyala Bridge. The best example of the behavior of Halliburton – in which company Bush, Rumsfeld, and Cheney have large shares – is perhaps the story of how Halliburton opened bidding for the rebuilding of the Diyala Bridge. A group of Iraqi companies came forward offering to rebuild the bridge for $300,000. But Halliburton gave the contract to an American company at a cost of $53 million!!

Then there is the example of the Iraqi institutions that have no relation to warfare or weapons, such as, for example the civil registry bureaus, the real estate offices, land registry institutions, tax bureaus, offices of pious endowments (awqaf), educational departments. No one knows why these were destroyed or burned down. It is as if this were some vengeance being exacted for the Babylonian invasion that the Americans want to settle scores for.

After all this, we, you, and the entire world know that the Americans came to invade Iraq, to control the region´s resources, and thereby to control the world and subjugate all the world´s people. In other words, the Americans want to shed our Iraqi blood in order to rule the world, to conquer it and to conquer us together.

No one can see so much as a glimmer of light in this, neither today nor a century from now. According to this plan, people in Iraq are supposed to butcher one another for the sake of a crust of bread. In light of this prospect, there is no hope for the Iraqi people except by resorting to armed struggle. This is to say nothing about the fact that we are dealing here with the occupation of something great and sacred, that is: the homeland. This is to say nothing of the fact that we are dealing here with a violation of our basic dignity and honor.

The Resistance, therefore, has begun.

What is the Iraqi Resistance and what does it want?

What does the Resistance want? To put it simply, it wants to expel the occupiers. To kick the occupier out of Iraq one way or another – in a coffin or carrying one. To go out carrying a coffin is what the American troops themselves prefer, as do their mothers, wives, children, the American and British people and all people of the earth. This is easy to accomplish and the sooner the better, simply because nobody wants any soldier to be killed for the sake of Bush or Rumsfeld or the Halliburton Corporation.

The task of the Resistance and its legitimate goals are:

1. To prevent the enemy occupier from exploiting any of Iraq´s wealth, in particular, its oil. There must be no export, no utilization. What the Resistance is hitting are the oil pipelines to the outside world, not the internal pipelines. The gasoline and fuel crisis in general is something generated by the occupation, for they steal the oil and ship it to the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border or the Iraqi-Saudi border and then come back and sell it as if it were fuel imported from Kuwait or Saudi Arabia.

2. Preventing the occupation from deriving benefit from any work contracts that it has signed with Halliburton or other companies. All the contractors and all the specialists who work for these companies are legitimate targets for the Resistance.

3. Every Iraqi who cooperates with the occupation or whose work will benefit the occupation is a legitimate target of the Resistance. We mean by that the Governing Council, its ministers, and even the Iraqi translators who accompany the occupation forces.

4. The occupation army, its supplies, and anything or anyone that could serve it, such as technical specialists, or civilian workers or non-civilian workers. They too are direct targets of the Resistance.

5. The military arena for the Iraqi Resistance is the state of Iraq within its known borders. Therefore, Iraqi stooges and collaborators with the occupation are a permanent target of the Resistance. The occupation troops and their military and civilian interests are targets only within Iraqi borders. Every soldier or dependent on the occupation who leaves Iraq, just one meter from the Iraqi borders is no longer a military target. The struggle against him will be a part of the general struggle against colonialism and imperialism. It is a struggle such as that being waged today in Europe, a peaceful, struggle of ideas and institutions only.

As an example of the work of the Resistance we might mention that the total losses of the occupation for the year 2003 since the declaration of the end of military operations on 1 May is 3,245 killed; 3,434 wounded; 1,011 vehicles destroyed; 55 railroad cars; 55 helicopters; 4 transport planes; 3 F-16 airplanes; 5 military boats; 83 blasted oil pipelines; 98 attacks on military camps. The enemy has kept silent about these losses. They are the targets of the Resistance, and attacking them is its mode of operation. Let this serve as a warning to the companies that intend to work in Iraq under American tutelage. It is a warning also to those countries that intend to send their soldiers to Iraq. The Iraqi Resistance has issued a warning on this matter, so its conscience is now clear as regards any further consequences. Hereafter, whoever desires to die in defense of the Halliburton Corporation or Bush or Rumsfeld, let him come forward!

Who is the Iraqi Resistance?

It is the entire people of Iraq.

There is also the noteworthy presence of the Baath Party, of Salafi Islamists, in addition to the left, independents, and others.

The Baath.
The Baath today accounts for about 30 percent of the body of the Resistance. It was under the direct command of Saddam Hussein. There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein was a harsh dictator who repressed his opposition without mercy. During his rule individuals rose up who were unworthy and unskilled. These are things that cannot be excused or ignored regardless of what happens. But on the other hand, since the 1990s Saddam Hussein has been true in his stance against America. He led battles in defense of Iraq during the
invasion and led many of the battles after the occupation, the last being the battle that lasted 30 hours and in which 260 enemy of various ranks were killed and dozens of their vehicles destroyed. The enemy was unable to get to him until they used narcotic gasses, and it was only then that they were
able to take him alive. In order to humiliate, frustrate, and reduce the morale of the Resistance they presented him in the manner that the world witnessed. In fact, there is no connection between him and the "nest" about which they spoke nor the date palm whose fruit ripens in July. After he came back to his senses, as the no-account Bremer and as Myers said "he is threatening and not cooperative with the
investigation."

Saddam Hussein´s firm and true stances, although they do not wipe out his mistakes before the war, devolve to his credit now.

Saddam was, until his capture, an important part of the liberation equation. He is Iraqi and Iraq, the first country on earth to devise laws and legislation, is the one entitled to make an accounting of him for his past deeds. Saddam and the issues of his rule and the regime are purely internal Iraqi issues. In no way do they call for the occupation of Iraq. In other words, Iraq is not only Saddam Hussein, and the alternative to the toppling of Saddam Hussein is not the occupation of Iraq.

The presence of the Baath with the Resistance does not and will not mean the return of the Baath to power. In general, the liberation will not lead to the return of one party, for there is no wisdom in this, nor is it justified nor is there anyone calling for this. The matter of the Baath returning to power is
basically absolutely not on the minds of the fighters or the patriotic political figures. The basic task is liberation.

There are members of the Baath today who lead an important part of the Resistance, but this is not for the sake of returning to power but to expel the occupation. This is the truth. And the martyrdom fighters are the proof! What does the martyrdom fighter seek? Does he seek a return to power too? Is that "return to power" supposed to be in this world or
in the hereafter?

The Islamists.
In this connection we, the Iraqi Communist Party (Cadre) have already declared our renunciation of atheism, and our recognition of the existence of the Creator. This has no relation to the Qur´an, or the New Testament, or the Torah. This is our conviction which we have reached, and is derived entirely from the laws of Marxism.

In the Iraqi national Resistance, Islam plays an important, and perhaps the greatest role. There are Shiites and Sunnis and there are also the Salafis. The Salafis in the common understanding of that term are the most vehement fundamentalists in terms of the implementation of the teachings of religion and in taking that which the Salaf (the first generation of the Muslims) thought and did as the criterion for practice and the source for teaching, regardless of the distance in time that separates us from the era of that early generation.

But this conception of the Salafis is not, as we have come to understand, exactly correct. It would be somewhat justified if we were speaking about the situation during the last decades of the 20th century, when religious concerns were limited to (or when some people wanted to limit them to) how to grow your beard, how to wrap your turban, how to make your ablutions and what are the things that require ablution, etc. But these are the practices of the period of the Cold War when the Islamic religion was given one role and one role only, namely to be the ally of world imperialism. Its job was to wage the most violent struggle possible against Communism and the national liberation struggles, so that after they were defeated it could retreat to the mosques and forever stay out of politics.

The experience of Usamah bin Ladin, and the activity that we see today on the part of those who clearly call themselves Salafi, and whom we also call Salafi, totally contradicts that common concept of what the Salafis are like. Instead there is a brilliant new conception of the term Salafi emerging today which will have the greatest role to play in coming decades. The new conception has washed away the nonsense that accumulated in our thinking about the Salafis.

Today we see that the Salafi movements are the pioneers in the struggle against imperialism. They have the best understanding of its essence. They have the best organization and are the most intense enemies of imperialism and are also its most dangerous adversary among all the movements in the world. They are the most inspired by the Jihadi struggle and spirit of self sacrifice in that cause. They inspire the most precise battlefield planning to the extent that they have frustrated all imperialism´s schemes and tricks as they fight the foe. What a clear, bright jihadi face these Salafis have! And it is the Americans who have stirred up the Salafis in the world, and Shaykh Usamah bin Ladin is their witness to this.

The Americans said about Shaykh Usamah that he is a hero and militant struggler for freedom. But that was only when he fought the Soviet Union. Now when he demands the rights of his homeland and people, he has become a "terrorist." For everyone´s information, the 11 September attack in America cannot be legally regarded as terrorism because America and al-Qa…‘idah had already declared war on each other and neither the United Nations nor anyone else objected. Striking at interior lines in a horrific way that does not spare civilians or the infrastructure is something that the Americans do, as evidenced by the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and as evidenced by all the strikes launched against the poor Afghan people, eliciting as a response nothing but the word "sorry." We could also review what happened in Italy and elsewhere. The point is that striking against internal lines and targeting cities is an American practice. If Usamah bin Ladin responded to that, then it was only by way of giving tit-for-tat, nothing more.

From another point of view, we Communists are naturally disposed, inclined, and ranged against imperialism. We have an unwavering hostility to it. We are locked in a life-and-death struggle against it. This is based on a simple argument, namely that we represent the oppressed on the earth, that we speak on their behalf, and on behalf of all the people and peoples who love freedom and peace. We are opposed and we fight also against all forms of exploitation and slavery. There is no avoiding the fact that our basic enemy is whoever exploits and enslaves the people, who occupies their land, and lives like a clot in their blood. The one who exploits the people, who occupies their land and sucks their blood is imperialism – America and "Israel" – and those who stand behind or with them. That is to say, our only, primary, and basic enemy is imperialism and Zionism, and we are their gravediggers. They fight us, and we fight them. There can be no relaxation, or laxity, or coexistence with them, if we are truthful when we say that we represent the people and the oppressed.

Aside from this, America itself has presented us with a choice: either itself or the peoples. America does not hesitate to say that Iraq is their battlefield in the struggle against terrorism. It does not hesitate to consider anyone who resists them, who does not conform to their position, a terrorist who must be uprooted. Since they know full well how well organized are the Salafis, and how intense their Jihadi ethic is, and how serious their battlefield plans are, the imperialists direct all their energies at fighting them, in particular their propaganda and psychological energies, and their abilities in the realm of the information revolution. We must beware of this, in particular after the way America singled out the renegades from Communist principles, those who did not understand anything about Communism other than to stamp their approval on whatever Moscow – the giver of blessings – decreed. Today those renegades defend Washington with the same fulsomeness and intense love that they used to defend Moscow. If anyone wants to check this he can pick up some of the traitorous, Abu Righal literature of the renegade Hamid Majid and substitute the word Moscow for Washington and he will see whether he can notice any difference.

In sum, we, Salafis and secularists are allies bound by a holy alliance in the cause of the liberation of Iraq. That on which we agree brings us together. That over which we differ cannot divide us. That over which we differ is just one thing, and that is that both of us have our own vision of what is to come after we attain the current goal, which is now the liberation of Iraq, Palestine, and Afghanistan. The vision of one of us is not the opposite of the vision that the other has. For the truth is like the Kaabah, it can be approached from numerous directions. In accordance with the Salafi staying "my opinion is correct but might contain error, and the opinion of my opponent is an error that might contain truth."

To be more precise and clear we might say "we religious people, the Salafis and the non-Salafis, the Baathis, the Arab Nationalists, the Communists, and all secular patriots, regardless of ethnicity or confession, the Iraqis among us and the non-Iraqis are one. We are bound by one sacred alliance. Our enemy is one, and that is imperialism and its offspring, Zionism. Our current aim is the liberation of Iraq, Palestine, and Afghanistan."

On this basis the Iraqi national Resistance is not scared by and no one must be scared by the calling of names such as "terrorist", or "anti-semitic" or such like nonsense. If Anglo-zionist imperialism left the world alone to live as it wanted and to determine for itself its own relations, terrorism would never have arisen nor would anyone have had need for it. In that case the peoples would definitely have determined their interrelations with one another on one basis,namely coexistence, love, and peace. Civilized, secular, democratic Europe which you know, this Europe will be called by the Americans what they call Usamah bin Ladin and Saddam Hussein – "terrorist" and a "spoiler of civilization" if the European peoples should come to notice the large number of American bases on European soil and demand that they leave or be reduced in number.

Finally, on the soil of Iraq the destiny of the world, or at least of the Third World, is now being decided. If the Iraqi Resistance wins, American tyranny will be brought to an end for ever. But if the Americans win, the world has no hope for freedom or peace, and the peoples of the Third World will have no hope for liberation. In that case, oppression, injustice, and permanent slavery will be inscribed upon the land by a handful of capitalist bloodsuckers. This definitely is the prospect that must compel you, noble citizens,to take a stand with the people of Iraq in their time of trial and struggle with the invaders!

Long live liberated Iraq!
Death to the invaders!
Long live Europe without American bases, and without American tutelage over its peoples and policies!
Long live the peoples!
Long live world peace!