The big lie of Bush and Co is meant to cover up a horrifying truth: the endless suffering of the Iraqi people caused by the US invasion. Calling this invasion a criminal act doesn’t properly describe the vast injustice of every day the US stays in Iraq.
The Guardian, a UK newspaper, provides us with a bit of insight into what is really happening. A series of film snippets by an Iraqi photo journalist, Ghaith Abdul-Ahud illuminates a little bit of the heart-breaking truth that is the war in Iraq.
From the start of the war, the NY Times has served has a propaganda arm for Bush & Co. Today they printed an analysis which strongly implies that the current fighting is proving the success of the US approach. Mainly quoting “Western officials” and US-based analysts, they claimed that the attack on the Mahdi army indicates that the Iraqi government is finally having the backbone to act on its own, without US prodding, and stand up to militants. Such action is a necessary step for political stability and for strengthening the central government. They further claim that Sadr is losing popularity amongst the Shia populace which makes this an opportune time to attack him. The also imply that undermining Sadr, helps undermine Iranian influence.
By contrast, the Christian Science Monitor spend some time speaking to Arab analysts, and not just US government officials. They paint a completely different picture. One analysts argues that the US was behind this push from the beginning, and it was the US and al-Maliki who underestimated the implications of their actions, rather than Sadr. Moreover, Iran has its fingers in all the pies, and if in the highly unlikely event Sadr goes down, Iran will not lose. Finally, this is not about the central Iraqi government asserting power, but one Shia faction trying to rest control from another, as part of a chess game for a Shia takeover of Iraq’s largest oil resource.
The irony here is that should the ISCI, the faction behind the attack on Sadr, succeed in forming an autonomous Shi’a region on the Kurd model, the Sunni’s are sure to rise up again. This time they will have US arms and training (having recently “allied” themselves to the US military). The blood bath will be immensely worse than prior to the surge. The mess just gets messier and the Iraqi people’s suffering just gets worse.
