66 dead and 300 injured

Iraq is not under control

Washington claimed last week that the situation in Iraq was under control and that the violence was caused by scattered and sporadic groups of criminals and thugs. The response - in less than 24 hours, three attacks in three different places have left at least 66 people dead and nearly 300 injured. Iraq is not under control. Washington lies...again.

The catastrophic situation in Iraq is the legacy of the irresponsibility and blase attitude to world affairs, which is the approach of the Bush regime. In purposefully targeting civilian structures in Iraq, (so that lucrative rebuilding contracts could be handed out to the corporate elite surrounding the White House?), the Bush regime has caused a seething hatred among the Ba'ath regime diehards, the Shia militia (formerly their enemies) and has seen thousands of insurgents pouring into the country to fight the invasion forces.

This is not the peace and stability that Bush promised, this is not the result of the "freedom and democracy" political offensive that he expected. Hardly surprising, with an attitude which passed from  a murderous "shock and awe" campaign, in which cluster bombs were deployed in civilian areas, to a heavy-handed policy of animosity towards the civilian population, whose hearts and minds the Bush regime hoped to win over.

By dropping cluster bombs on them? By destroying their water supply? By destroying their sewage treatment plants? By targeting the electricity supply? By targeting hospitals? By firing at civilian cars and murdering terrified three-year-old boys?

Hardly surprising, then, is the reaction from every able-bodied Iraqi or Arab with a heart and a mind. This is not terrorism, it is a logical reaction to an illogical action. Last night, an attack on the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad killed 22 prisoners held by the US forces and injured a further 92. Baghdad is not under control.

This morning, fighting has broken out in Fallujah, where US forces have been attacked with a massive and sustained barrage of artillery fire. Fallujah is not under control.

This morning also, the former relative peace in Basra was shattered when a series of four explosions, reportedly caused by car bombs and mortars, tore through police stations, leaving, until now, 44 dead and around 200 injured. Basra is not under control.

Such is the hatred felt towards the invading forces that the British troops trying to help the injured were stoned by the local population, who told them to go away because they were responsible.

And they are. Attacking a sovereign nation for no good reason, destroying the civilian infrastructures, only for an army of businessmen to follow the murderous campaign of the marauding hordes of invaders, which slaughtered 10.000 innocent people and mutilated a further 35.000, does not create good will. It does not win hearts and minds.

Such is the planning of the Bush regime, which has willingly spent one hundred and sixty-two billion USD of its taxpayers' hard-earned money on this illegal act of butchery. It will go on and on and on and on. It will costs billions and billions and billions more. It will claim more and more and more lives. Such is the legacy of George W. Bush.