Liberating Baghdad, Again
by Ian Mosley
According to a feature article in the Times of London, the American military is planning a “second liberation of Baghdad” to be carried out with the Iraqi army when a new government is installed, which at the rate they’re going means next year some time. “Pacifying the lawless capital is regarded as essential to establishing the authority of the incoming government and preparing for a significant withdrawal of American troops,” the newspaper informs us. (Why are American military plans being published in newspapers at all? Didn’t the idea used to be that an army wanted to KEEP SECRET its plans for future activities?)
Strategic and tactical plans are being laid by US commanders in Iraq to “clean up” Iraq’s chaotic capital so that the new puppet government at least won’t be embarrassed by having to hunker down in the heavily fortified Green Zone under the protection of American occupation troops. These neighborhoods contain thousands of heavily armed Iraqis belonging to assorted gangs, militias and guerrilla groups. We are in fact talking about a God-awful mess which will leave behind very little in the way of housing or people to be hooked up to utlities, like the American flattening of Fallujah, but reality very seldom intrudes its ugly head into American military planning these days.
“Sunni insurgent strongholds” (read Iraqi resistance forces) are almost certain to be the first targets, but the main object seems to be to get ride of the Mahdi army of Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical cleric, and the Iranian-backed Badr Brigade. It would seem that someone in the American government has finally noticed that the Iraqi puppet regime now in the Green Zone is in fact only dubiously in the control of the United States occupiers, and in fact seem to be Iranian puppets rather than ours. What the Shi’ite dominated government will think of America attacking their own people may be imagined.
The main purpose of this “ultimate offensive” seems to be to put a temporary coating of lipstick on the Iraqi pig in time for the November 2006 elections, since it doesn’t look like we’ll be anywhere near out of there by November and the body bags will still be piling up.With Bush’s approval ratings below 40%, the vote is shaping up to be a Republican rout.
“It will be the second liberation of Baghdad… The new government will be able to claim it is taking back the streets” said a Pentagon adviser. Since the most likely result of this offensive will be an appalling slaughterhouse that will make everything which has gone before look like a hockey game, this is a rather doubtful result. I’d also like to hear what Grand Ayatollah Sistani will say about the Americans going after his bumptious young protege Al Sadr. The operation is likely to begin towards the end of the summer, giving the newly appointed “government” time to establish itself. If all goes to plan, the United States can declare victory and start pulling out. If it turns into the usual neocon debacle, combined with an air canmpaign against Iran, the whole Middle East could go up in flames.