According to a poll conducted by the University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy in September, 61 percent of Iraqis support resistance attacks on U.S. troops. This is up from 47 percent support last January.
The reported increase corresponds to an increase in the number of attacks against U.S. occupying forces. In the last
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Contrary to the capitalist media portrayal of “sectarian violence” committed by “terrorists,” the Iraqi people blame the U.S. occupiers for the violence in their country. In the Program on International Policy poll, 80 percent of Iraqis surveyed said that the U.S. occupation is the main cause of violence in Iraq.
Though the U.S. government goes to great lengths to conceal it, the Iraqi people are right—the U.S. occupation forces are responsible for the violence and death in Iraq. Some 150,000 U.S. troops and thousands of foreign soldiers are stationed in the country.
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed. But there is no official figure of Iraqi deaths since the 2003 invasion. Seeking to obscure the violence of the U.S. occupation, U.S. generals refuse to do body counts of Iraqis.
But in February 2006, Les Roberts—the scientist who conducted the well-known study on Iraqi deaths for the British medical journal the Lancet in September 2004—estimated that Iraqi civilian deaths had reached 200,000 to 300,000. Roberts said that the real number was probably higher. Those deaths are directly attributable to the U.S. imperialist occupation.
United against the occupation
The Iraqi people are united in demanding a complete U.S. withdrawal. According to a recent U.S. State Department poll, 66 percent of Iraqis want the U.S. occupiers to leave immediately. The Program on International Policy poll found that 91 percent of Iraqis wanted the United States to leave within six months, a year or two years. The choice of immediate withdrawal was not given.
Both polls, though closely reflecting the truth, were conducted by entities that favor the U.S. occupation of Iraq and
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It is almost certain that the numbers of Iraqis who support the armed resistance and want the U.S. military to leave immediately are much higher than reported in polls. The massive volume and success of attacks on U.S. troops over the last three-and-a-half years suggests that the vast majority of Iraqis support all anti-occupation efforts. Nearly 3,000 U.S. troops have died in Iraq. Tens of thousands have been seriously wounded.
The recent polls and the increasing resistance in Iraq clearly show that the Iraqi people are resisting U.S. attempts to divide and conquer their country. This should not come as a surprise. The national unity of the Iraqi people has been a powerful factor in the Middle East, from the 1920 rebellion against British colonialism until today.
If the Bush administration and Congress were truly serious about democracy and freedom in Iraq, they would order an immediate and unconditional withdrawal. They would pay reparations for the destruction and suffering they have caused.
The imperialists, however, will not bring justice to the Iraqi people. More war and threats against the people of the Middle East are on the agenda for the U.S. ruling class.
U.S. imperialism is responsible for the devastation and death in Iraq. It is a monstrous crime against humanity. With its massacres, death squads, secret police, prisons, poverty and callous disregard for Iraqi sovereignty and human life, the brutal occupation is being imposed on Iraqis against their will.
But instead of a smooth occupation, the U.S. military and their commanders in Washington are faced with an entire population in revolt.
