IRAQ: CREEPING TOWARD EL SALVADOR

First, some background. From a post-mortem on Reagan's presidency by Nation editor David Corn for TomPaine.com:

The El Mozote episode is, sadly, only one example of violence borne of Reagan’s foreign policy. The troops that did the killing were supported by his administration because they were fighting leftist rebels. A 1992 report produced by a UN-sanctioned truth commission described the awful event:

"On 10 December 1981, in the village of El Mozote in the Department of Morazan, units of the Atlacatl Battalion detained, without resistance, all the men, women and children who were in the place…. Early next morning, 11 December, the soldiers reassembled the entire population in the square. They separated the men from the women and children and locked everyone up in different groups in the church, the convent and various houses."

"During the morning, they proceeded to interrogate, torture and execute the men in various locations. Around noon, they began taking the women in groups, separating them from their children and machine-gunning them. Finally, they killed the children. A group of children who had been locked in the convent were machine-gunned through the windows. After exterminating the entire population, the soldiers set fire to the buildings."

The report noted that "the Atlacatl Battalion was a ‘Rapid Deployment Infantry Battalion’ or BIRI,’ that is, a unit specially trained for ‘counter-insurgency’ warfare. It was the first unit of its kind in the [El Salvadoran] armed forces and had completed its training under the supervision of United States military advisors, at the beginning of that year, 1981."

When two reporters—Raymond Bonner of The New York Times and Alma Guillermoprieto of The Washington Post —reported the massacre in January 1982, the Reagan administration denied it had occurred. Reagan’s point-man on Latin America, Elliott Abrams, told Congress that these reports were no more than commie propaganda. That is, he lied. (Today, Abrams, that lover of truth and human rights, is a staff member on Bush’s National Security Council responsible for Middle East matters.) A forensic investigation conducted in the early 1990s proved that the massacre had happened. And the truth commission’s report noted that "two hundred forty-five cartridge cases recovered from the El Mozote site were studied. Of these, 184 had discernable headstamps, identifying the ammunition as having been manufactured for the United States Government at Lake City, Missouri. ...All of the projectiles except one appear to have been fired from United States-manufactured M-16 rifles."

Thanks to Ronald Reagan, American tax dollars supported the murder of hundreds of El Salvadoran villagers.

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This was pretty much standard procedure for the Reagan administration: support the bloodiest regimes available as long as it served foreign policy goals. Understanding this is absolutely crucial for understanding what's going on in Iraq right now. It is important to note that numerous figures who served in the Reagan administration are currently serving in the Bush administration. This is simply the way they do business.

Previously, I've written about how John Negroponte, Reagan's ambassador to Honduras, another bloody mess supported by the United States, is now the ambassador to Iraq's new puppet regime: clearly, he was chosen for his experience in aiding and abetting the brutal suppression of the region's civilian population, rather than his diplomatic expertise. It doesn't take a super-intelligent chimpanzee to see that he's in Iraq to do what he does best.

I've also written about how Iraq's new Prime Minister ruthlessly gunned down six suspected insurgents in a foreshadowing of the terror to come, if it hasn't arrived already. Putting down the Iraqi insurgency seems to be inspiring a reinstatement of Saddam's torture chambers. As far as I can tell, this all seems to be according to plan. There will be no democracy in Iraq, and I wonder if the White House ever meant for there to be one. The United States has created and sanctioned what most likely will amount to a new dictatorship that may very well surpass the brutality of it's predecessor, and, if history is any indicator, most Americans will never have any idea of what is being done in their name.

Is it any wonder that there is so little popular support in Iraq for American troop presence or the US controlled government?

From the London Independent via ZNet, a report from longtime Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk:

Iraq to Explode

When suicide bombers ram their cars into hundreds of recruits outside police stations, how on earth can anyone hold an election next January? Even the National Conference to appoint those who will arrange elections has been twice postponed. And looking back through my notebooks over the past five weeks, I find that not a single Iraqi, not a single American soldier I have spoken to, not a single mercenary - be he American, British or South African - believes that there will be elections in January. All said that Iraq is deteriorating by the day. And most asked why we journalists weren't saying so.

But in Baghdad, I turn on my television and watch Bush telling his Republican supporters that Iraq is improving, that Iraqis support the "coalition," that they support their new US-manufactured government, that the "war on terror" is being won, that Americans are safer. Then I go to an internet site and watch two hooded men hacking off the head of an American in Riyadh, tearing at the vertebrae of an American in Iraq with a knife. Each day, the papers here list another construction company pulling out of the country. And I go down to visit the friendly, tragically sad staff of the Baghdad mortuary and there, each day, are dozens of those Iraqis we supposedly came to liberate, screaming and weeping and cursing as they carry their loved ones on their shoulders in cheap coffins.

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As long as we have soldiers there, as long as Iraq is ruled by a surrogate government, this insurgency will continue. And as long as the insurgency continues, that surrogate government will continue to up the ante in its violent response. The Iraqi population only stands to lose.

Again from the London Independent via the New Zealand Herald:

Iraq set to use martial law in terror fight

The interim Iraqi government last night looked increasingly prepared to impose martial law on sections of the country as coalition and Iraqi forces fought fierce battles with armed insurgents loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

There were strong hints that the interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi could for the first time apply his controversial emergency powers when he announces new plans for tackling the spreading insurgency tomorrow.

And

The hints followed a declaration quoted in yesterday's Iraqi newspapers by the interim President Ghazi Ajil Alyawa that "it is the time to use the new national safety law" to protect the country against insurgents.

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So much for democracy in Iraq.

And from CNN, more foreshadowing of what lies ahead for Iraqi freedom:

Iraq shuts Al-Jazeera's Baghdad office

Iraq's interim government has closed the Baghdad office of the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television network for one month, citing national security concerns.

"This decision was taken to protect the people of Iraq and the interests of Iraq," Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's told a news conference Saturday.

Allawi said the order to close Al-Jazeera, which was to take effect immediately, came after an independent commission monitored the network's reports.

The findings of the commission were "compelling," he said.

And

"They have been showing a lot of crime and criminals on TV. They transferred a bad picture about Iraq and about Iraqis. They have encouraged the criminals and the gangsters to increase their activities in the country," al-Naqib said.

Click here for the rest.

Say what you want about Al-Jazeera's reporting: they are a legitimate news organization, and this censorship is ominous; reading between the lines, it is clear that the puppet regime simply doesn't like the positive coverage the insurgents are getting.

There were no WMDs in Iraq. There was no connection with al-Qaeda. There will be no democracy or freedom for Iraqis. On the contrary, it now appears that the US has established a brutal dictatorship that only differs from Saddam Hussein's in that it collaborates with the United States. Every rationale advanced by the Bush administration for the invasion now lies in tatters. We've done much more harm than good.

Iraq is looking more and more like El Salvador every day.

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