WWP candidates: Indict Bush for war crimes
Support Iraqi resistance against U.S. assault on Najaf
The Workers World Party election campaign and our candidates, John
Parker for president, Teresa Gutierrez for vice president, and LeiLani
Dowell for Congress, condemn the monstrous U.S. assault on the Iraqi
city of Najaf and demand an immediate end to the siege that began Aug.
5.
We demand an end to the U.S. offensive and the immediate,
unconditional withdrawal of all U.S., British and other occupation
troops from Iraq. And we join the Iraqi people in demanding the
resignation of the puppet regime headed by Interim Prime Minister Iyad
Allawi.
U.S. forces are besieging Najaf in an attempt to crush the wing of the
Iraqi resistance headed by Moqtada al-Sadr. Shiite Muslims and all
Iraqis are justly outraged at the siege of the historic Imam Ali
Mosque where Sadr has taken refuge.
The offensive, which has already resulted in many civilian casualties,
displays the same ruthless character as the siege of Falluja earlier
this year. Many see it as a punishment of Sadr's forces for refusing
to support the conference called by the Allawi regime to select an
interim national assembly.
On Aug. 15, John F. Burns of the New York Times, reporting from the
Baghdad conference, admitted that "the rebel attacks ... have spread
to virtually every Sunni and Shiite town." The meeting itself, held
under "siege-like conditions" in the U.S.-controlled Green Zone, was
"thrown into disorder by delegates staging angry protests against the
American-led military operation in the Shiite holy city of Najaf."
Knight Ridder reported that 100 delegates walked out in protest.
Allawi's government, handpicked by Washington, has no legitimacy with
the Iraqi people. Instead, the population is responding to the U.S.
offensive with acts of solidarity for the besieged residents of Najaf
and the resistance fighters. This sentiment cuts across all layers of
the population, including all religious and secular groups, which are
united in opposing the colonial occupation of their country.
Mass protests were held in five cities Aug. 13. This included Falluja,
the majority-Sunni city that Reuters calls "a hotbed of resistance."
There, crowds chanted, "Long live Sadr, Falluja stands by Najaf
against America."
Tens of thousands poured into Najaf during a brief cease-fire to hold
a mass demonstration. Thousands more have gone to form a defense
shield around the Imam Ali Mosque.
"We are a group of 500 women, many of whom are young students, and we
plan to go tonight to Najaf to be part of a large human chain that we
will form surrounding the shrine and also Sadr," said Rajaa Khayum of
Baghdad. (AFP, Aug. 13)
Al Jazeera reported that 16 of Najaf's 30-member provincial council
and a deputy governor resigned in protest over the U.S. attack.
After the U.S. offensive resumed Aug. 15, Iraqi defense ministry
officials told Knight Ridder that an entire battalion of Iraqi
soldiers and over 100 national guards had thrown down their rifles and
quit, refusing to attack fellow Iraqis.
Armed resistance is growing throughout the country. In the second week
of Aug ust, clashes were reported in Sadr City, Baghdad, Balad Ruz,
Diwaniya, Hillah, Samarra and Amarah, to name a few.
What all of this amounts to is a genuine people's war for the
liberation of Iraq from those who would conquer, occupy and rob the
country of its resources for profit.
Although the resistance does not yet show the same kind of unified
national leadership as the Vietnamese National Lib er ation Front, it
is nonetheless a genuine liberation movement and deserves the support
of all anti-war forces, workers and progressive people in the United
States.
We declare our unconditional support for the Iraqi people's right to
resist the murderous U.S. occupation by any means necessary.
Indict war criminal Bush
The brutal assault on Najaf is but the latest atrocity committed by
the Bush administration, in collaboration with Republican and
Democratic party leaders, on behalf of Wall Street, Big Oil and other
sectors of the capitalist ruling class.
We urge the Iraq War Crimes Tribunal, convening in New York City Aug.
26, to hand down a strong indictment of Bush and his collaborators for
war crimes--including crimes against peace, targeting civilians,
destroying a sovereign regime, sending U.S. soldiers into battle under
false pretenses, torturing prisoners, robbing U.S. workers to pay war
profiteers, and much more.
The Iraq War Crimes Tribunal kicks off a week of resistance against
the Repub lican National Convention. Tens of thousands of protesters
from across the United States will join New Yorkers to protest this
celebration of racist warmongers. Bush and his backers must have their
feet put to the fire for all their crimes against poor and working
people at home and abroad, and especially for the criminal war and
occupation of Iraq.
We caution those burning with righteous anger against Bush not to fall
into the trap of supporting the "lesser evil" presidential candidate,
Democratic Sen. John Kerry. He recently declared that he too would
have gone to war against Iraq, even though the fraud of "weapons of
mass destruction" has been long exposed.
Kerry has vowed to continue the occupation. Like Richard Nixon before
him, Kerry's claim to legitimacy with the ruling class is that he
could do a better job of conducting their criminal war than the
current president.
The Iraqi people are waging an independent mass struggle to drive out
the occupation forces. We must follow their example by building the
anti-war movement, reaching out to the working class and oppressed
people who are increasingly turning against the war, organizing among
disaffected military personnel, and building an independent,
anti-imperialist struggle to challenge whoever next occupies the White
House.
www.vote4workers.org
Reprinted from the Aug. 26, 2004, issue of Workers World newspaper
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