Prof. Sison is the Chairperson of the International Coordinating Committee of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle.
The International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) joins the American people and the peoples of the world in condemning the decision of George W. Bush to send additional troops to Iraq and escalate the U.S. war of aggression against the Iraqi people. We demand the immediate withdrawal of U.S. and other imperialist military forces in Iraq.
We support the urgent demand of the American people to bring home the U.S. troops and stop the U.S.-led war of aggression and occupation of Iraq. We condemn the Bush regime’s continuing war crimes and crimes against humanity to serve the rapacity of the military-industrial complex, the oil giants and the big banks at the expense of the lives of the US troops and the resources of the American taxpayers.
We endorse the call of the International ANSWER Coalition to launch emergency protest actions on January 11 against the Bush plan to escalate the war in Iraq. We must demand that the Bush regime stop wasting the lives and limbs of the U.S. troops and huge amounts of U.S. resources (already beyond USD 350 billion) and destroying the lives, the social infrastructure, the industries and other means of livelihood of the Iraqi people.
This imperialist war has already claimed the lives of over 650,000 Iraqis and has resulted in more than 50,000 U.S. troop casualties, including more than 3,000 U.S. killed. Bush has already acquired the distinction of having drawn away the U.S. military forces from the pursuit of Osama bin Laden and having caused the bloody death of more American citizens than the al Qaida killed in 9/11.
In the course of its two wars of aggression against Iraq and the 12-year period of economic sanctions and bombings, US imperialism has also acquired the distinction of having caused the death of far more Iraqi people than Saddam has been accused of killing with US encouragement in the course of the anti-communist suppression, the decade-long Iran-Iraq war and the recurrent suppression of opposition forces.
Will the world be more peaceful and orderly if any imperialist power can launch a war aggression (the worst crime against humanity) against another country in the name of spreading democracy? At any rate, Bush and his puppets in Iraq have unwittingly given Saddam a favor by unlawfully rushing his martyrdom and limiting his accountability and trial to the case of only 148 alleged victims in a supposed reprisal for an assassination attempt on him.
U.S. imperialism has no chance of winning its war of aggression, no matter how much it tries to divide and rule the Arab majority (80 per cent) of the Iraqi population by fanning religious strife between the Shia and Sunni.
The Iraqi people are aware that the U.S. directed its agents to bomb and destroy the Shia mosque in Samarra in order to ignite religious strife and to shout the name of Moqtada at the hanging of Saddam in order to exacerbate the Shia-Sunni strife.
The Iraqi people of various political, ethnic, religious and other affinities are more determined than ever before to resist and drive away the US and British imperialist aggressors. They are fighting for their national sovereignty, their patrimony and dignity. They are outraged that the imperialists are hell-bent on taking over their oil wealth and their entire economy.
The firm resistance of the Iraqi people has put the most powerful war machine in the world in a quagmire. The ignominy of failure stares at the face of the highest monopoly-driven echelons of the U.S. political and military establishment. But these are still desperately looking for ways to retain U.S. military forces in Iraq and impose U.S. greed and bloodlust on the Iraqi people. The American people must act now to keep these monopoly monsters from further harming both the American and Iraqi peoples.
We call on all the participating organizations of the ILPS to show their support to the emergency demonstration being organized by the International ANSWER Coalition in various cities in the U.S. by sending solidarity statements and undertaking various forms of protest actions that are possible immediately.
At the same time, we must be ready to wage a sustained and protracted mass struggle to support the just revolutionary cause of the Iraqi people, as U.S. imperialism is hell-bent on keeping Iraq as a colonial or neo-colonial possession or breaking it up so that it can grab the oil wealth in the southern and northern provinces of Iraq. The sham constitution of the puppet government provides for the split of Iraq and the US control of the oil resources.
We thank the Iraqi people for resisting U.S. imperialism and all its allies and puppets and for rendering a great service to the people of the world. By making U.S. imperialism sink in a quagmire in Iraq, they expose the limits and weaknesses of the monster and other peoples of the world are thereby encouraged to wage anti-imperialist and democratic struggles.
End the U.S. Occupation of Iraq!
Bring the U.S. troops home now!
Down with U.S. imperialism, the No. 1 plunderer and aggressor!
Long live the Iraqi people!
Long live the people of the world!
