While You Were Looking at Katrina...

[Guest guest]

The most important news from Iraq last week was not the

much ballyhooed constitutional pact by Shias and Kurds, nor

the tragic stampede deaths of nearly 1,000 pilgrims in

Baghdad.

 

The U.S. Air Force's senior officer, Gen. John Jumper,

stated U.S. warplanes would remain in Iraq to fight resistance

forces and protect the American-installed regime " more or

less indefinitely. " Jumper's bombshell went largely

unnoticed due to Hurricane Katrina.

 

Gen. Jumper let the cat out of the bag. While President

George Bush hints at eventual troop withdrawals, the Pentagon

is busy building four major, permanent air bases in Iraq

that will require heavy infantry protection.

 

Jumper's revelation confirms what this column has long

said: The Pentagon plans to copy Imperial Britain's method of

ruling oil-rich Iraq. In the 1920s, the British cobbled

together Iraq from three disparate Ottoman provinces to control

newly-found oil fields in Kurdistan and along the Iranian

border.

 

London installed a puppet king and built an army of sepoy

(native) troops to keep order and put down minor uprisings.

Government minister Winston Churchill authorized use of

poisonous mustard gas against Kurdish tribesmen in Iraq and

Pushtuns in Afghanistan (today's Taliban). The RAF crushed

all revolts.

 

It seems this is what Jumper has in mind. Mobile U.S.

ground intervention forces will remain at the four major " Fort

Apache " bases guarding Iraq's major oil fields. These bases

will be " ceded " to the U.S. by a compliant Iraqi regime.

The U.S. Air Force will police the Pax Americana with its

precision-guided munitions and armed drones.

 

The USAF has developed an extremely effective new technique

of wide area control. Small numbers of strike aircraft are

kept in the air around the clock. When U.S. ground forces

come under attack or foes are sighted, these aircraft

deliver precision-guided bombs. This tactic has led Iraqi

resistance fighters to favour roadside bombs over ambushes against

U.S. convoys.

 

The USAF uses the same combat air patrol tactic in

Afghanistan, with even more success. The U.S. is also developing

three major air bases in Pakistan, and others across Central

Asia, to support its plans to dominate the region's oil and

gas reserves.

 

While the USAF is settling into West Asia, the mess in Iraq

continues to worsen. Last week's so-called " constitutional

deal " was the long-predicted, U.S.-crafted pact between

Shias and Kurds, essentially giving them Iraq's oil and

virtual independence. The proposed constitution assures American

big business access to Iraq's oil riches and markets.

 

The furious but powerless Sunnis were left in the lurch.

Sunnis will at least have the chance to vote on it in a Oct.

15 referendum, but many fear it will be rigged.

 

The U.S. reportedly offered the 15 Sunni delegates $5

million each to vote for the constitution -- but was turned

down. No mention was made that a U.S.-guided constitution for

Iraq would violate the Geneva Conventions.

 

Chinese Taoists say you become what you hate. In a zesty

irony, the U.S. now finds itself in a similar position as

demonized Saddam Hussein. Saddam had to use his

Sunni-dominated army to hold Iraq together by fighting Kurdish and Shia

rebels. His brutal police jailed tens of thousands and

routinely used torture.

 

Today, Iraq's new ruler, the U.S., is battling Sunni

insurgents, ( " al-Qaida terrorists, " in the latest Pentagon

doublespeak), rebuilding Saddam's dreaded secret police, holding

15,000 prisoners and torturing captives, as the Abu Ghraib

outrage showed.

 

Much of the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama National

Guard were in Iraq last week week instead of at home.

Meanwhile, the Kurds are de facto independent, the Shia are playing

footsie with Iran, and large parts of Iraq resemble the

storm-ravaged U.S. Gulf Coast -- or vice versa.

 

http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Margolis_Eric/2005/09/04/1201356.html

 

 

 

 

" When the power of love becomes stronger than the love of power, we will have

peace. "

Jimi Hendrix