Seven Years of Occupation and Resistance, Obama’s False Hope

On March 19th 2003, US imperialism brutally invaded the country of Iraq with the aim of “shocking and awing” the Iraqi people into submission and subjugating them to colonial rule. First they bombed the country, killing thousands, but the people were not shocked into submission. Then the occupation started and in the name of “freedom and democracy,” they found their whole country turned into a prison: anyone could be killed, rape, tortured and disappeared at any time. Despite this brutal “state terrorism” that has been inflicted on them, the Iraqi people have heroically resisted and fought the imperialist occupation of their country.

The Iraq war has now outlasted World Wars 1 and 2 and symbolizes an even more aggressive phase of imperialist aggression. Peole were seeing imperialism on steroids. After the defeat of US imperialism in Vietnam, it had its fingers burnt, it retreated a little and was momentarily hesitant in using direct invasion, occupation and colonization as a means of imperialist control. US imperialism decided it was more effective to try to make its imperialist claws less visible and extend its control through financing and directing proxy wars, coups and puppet regimes. 

After September 11 2001, the Bush neo-conservative regime became drunk with arrogance. It believed it could now resort back to the open imperialist invasions and colonization. Members of the Bush clique believed that they could invade and bomb Iraq, dispose of Saddam Hussein, occupy, colonize and steal the country’s oil and resources. They believed that the Iraqi people would simply submit to their military might and welcome them with flowers for bringing them this perverse “democracy and freedom.”  The people of the world didn’t buy the lies and on this day seven years ago they rose and protested the invasion in their millions. The brave people of Iraq welcomed the imperialist troops not with garlands of flowers but with heroic armed resistance.  

One million Iraqi people have now been killed, 10 million have been displaced and over the last seven years the American people have become awakened to the brutal reality of the war and eventually turned on Bush and his “hawks.” Obama was elected on the promise that the occupation would be ended and the “false hope” that US imperialism would become “benevolent.” Still the occupation continues and even though Obama has said that all combat troops will be removed by next September, in reality 50,000 US troops will remain in addition to the thousands of mercenaries working for US war corporations. With the renewed phase of aggression in Afghanistan, and the continuing occupation of Iraq, the people of the world are beginning to see though the “hope” hype and realize that the difference between Obama and Bush is akin to the difference between Pepsi and Coke. The reality of imperialism never changes; only its façade slightly does in order to make it more palatable to try to win people’s “hearts and minds.”  

For the Iraqi people, the heroic struggle for the liberation of their homeland will continue for many more years. It is our duty to stand with them in this struggle, oppose US imperialist aggression and struggle for our own national liberation. A world without imperialism is a world in which the working class and oppressed peoples and nations of the world can be liberated to live in genuine peace.