June 30, 2009: What has changed?

Imperialists give occupation a facelift

By James Circello

The author is a member of March Forward!, an organization of veterans and service members who stand against war and racism.

The June 30 promise for a “sovereign” Iraq has come and gone, with a declaration by the Obama administration that U.S. combat troops are now out of Iraqi cities. This could not be any further from the truth.

In the last several months, news reports have covered Washington’s attempt to redraw the boundaries of Iraqi cities where U.S. troops were present. These new boundaries would legally define certain U.S. bases as “outside” of the city. This tactic to prolong the imperialist occupation of Iraq has since been lost in the bourgeois media outlets.

Forward Operating Base Falcon, which is clearly located within the city of Baghdad, is just one of the places where the U.S. ruling class has given a new definition to the Status of Forces Agreement. “We and the Iraqis decided it wasn’t in the city”, a military official told the Christian Science Monitor.

Obama, speaking before marines at Camp Lejeune, N.C., in late February, said, “Let me say this as plainly as I can: By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end.” Yet the Obama administration has made clear its intention to leave at least 50,000 combat troops inside of Iraq and has done nothing to withdraw the additional army of mercenaries that number above 100,000.

These U.S. forces are trainers and liaisons in the effort to put an Iraqi face on the occupation. U.S. combat forces have trained a new Iraqi military, that will be used to safeguard its puppet regime in Baghdad at all costs.

U.S. occupation forces are still inside of Iraq and its cities, towns and villages. These troops, like all troops in the U.S. military, are combat troops. Houses are still being raided. Families are still being driven out of their homes. Men, women and children are still being brutally killed. The only real difference today is that more of the U.S. weapons doing the killing are held by Iraqis. The doors that are being kicked in are still U.S. boots—only now they are on the feet of Iraqi soldiers. U.S. foreign policy and military intelligence is still driving the occupation.

Imperialists steal Iraq’s oil while the world looks on

Just one day prior to the June 30 deadline reports came out about the puppet regime of Iraq auctioning off huge sectors of its oil industry to foreign corporations. Foreign companies servicing the fields will be paid per barrel of oil produced above a certain amount.

According to Reuters, the sale was billed as the first chance since Iraq nationalized its oil in 1972 for major foreign companies to get a run at the country’s oil reserves, much of which are untapped.

The history of colonial exploitation of Iraq’s resources goes back many years. Under the thumb of British colonialism following WWI, Iraq had its oil wealth stolen and split amongst the leading imperialist powers. Britain, France, Holland and the United States each obtained a 23.75 percent stake of Iraq’s oil.

Iraq’s oil belongs to the people of Iraq. The revenue made from the oil should go to providing health care, education and jobs to a country crippled and devastated by foreign aggression. It should not be finding its way into the pockets of foreign capitalists and CEOs.

The Los Angeles Times wrote on June 30, “With U.S. troops out of [Iraq’s] cities, the country’s future is back in the hands of its people.” This statement, and the hundreds more that are found in similar bourgeois news sources, must be scrutinized and exposed for what they are: ruling class propaganda. Until all occupation forces are out, Iraq cannot be free.

March Forward! demands the immediate withdrawal of all occupation forces from Iraq. The country of Iraq and its people cannot be sovereign until all U.S. military along with its imperialist coalition of military and corporate interests have been expelled. March Forward! stands with the people of Iraq who have so nobly and bravely resisted the oppression and exploitation being waged against them by imperialist forces!

This is not our war!
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