SPEAKING
FREELY At best, a
hollow victory By Amir Butler
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online
feature that allows guest writers to have their say.
Please click hereif you
are interested in contributing.
Throughout the Muslim world, from the West coast
of Africa to the southern-most islands of the Indonesian
archipelago, worshippers in mosques are lifting their
hands to the heavens and praying for Fallujah. As the
United States' gunships strafe the city known as the
City of Mosques and her centurions conduct
house-to-house searches, Fallujah has come to mean more
than just a town to the world's Muslims but an idea: the
belief that a life sacrificed for freedom is better than
a life spent living under occupation.
In March,
1917, Britain's General Stanley Maude stood in Fallujah
and offered the assurance that "we come as liberators,
not as invaders". He is buried on the outskirts of
Baghdad. Today, the US offers the same empty assurances
to the people of Fallujah; choosing to ignore the
obvious civilian impact of attacking a populated city
and ignoring the repeated fact that the Fallujan
resistance is viewed not as bandits or oppressors, but
as heroes imbued with the nationalism that has spread
across the country.
In April, the US attempted
to seize the city in Operation Vigilante Response, a
response to the killing of four US military contractors
and the ambushing of a US convoy a few days afterwards.
The resistance was able to successfully defend the city
from US forces until April 30, when the US retreated and
left the city to the Fallujah Brigade consisting of
former Iraqi army members and the insurgents themselves.
Likewise, the key regional towns of Samarra, Baquba and
Ramadi were all left under guerrilla control and the
Sunni triangle became an effective no-go zone for US
forces.
This latest operation to capture
Fallujah - Operation Phantom Fury - will deliver a
phantom victory. Although the 15,000 US troops may
ostensibly defeat the relatively small number of
"insurgents" in the city, the victory will be pyrrhic:
the damage to the city and civilian deaths necessary to
secure the city will mobilize more Iraqis against the
occupation; and the Sunni population of Iraq, who make
up at least 20% of the population, will become further
alienated.
However, if the US doesn't attack
Fallujah, then the anti-American attacks will continue
regardless, and the upcoming election in January - a
crucial step of the US exit strategy - will be
undermined. Without the involvement of Sunni Muslims,
the election of the US-purchased Prime Minister Iyad
Allawi would not have the veneer of legitimacy it
requires. Already, the major Sunni Muslim political
party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, has quit the interim
government in protest of the attack. The main religious
body, the Association of Muslim Scholars, have called
for the boycott of the elections, saying they will be
held, "over the corpses of those killed in Fallujah and
the blood of the wounded". It is difficult to see how
such a climate is conducive to democracy.
Indeed, despite assurances to the contrary, the
security situation in Iraq is worsening: attacks on
Americans have doubled to over 2,000 a month since the
June handover; in November, the Pentagon claimed there
were 5,000 resistance fighters, whereas now they claim
there are 20,000. For every fighter killed, there are
more waiting to join the ranks of the resistance; and
with every Iraqi killed there will be more Muslims,
inspired by the horrific imagery that will surely emerge
from the wreckage of Fallujah, who will be willing to
travel to Iraq to help their brothers in faith. Whether
in fact or merely in perception, America's occupation of
Iraq is seen by increasing numbers of Muslim faithful as
a holy war.
It's a view that is shared by some
members of the US military leadership. Rallying the
troops before the attack, US Marine Colonel Gary Bradl
said, "The enemy has got a face. He's called Satan. He's
in Fallujah and we're going to destroy him." The reality
is that despite the obfuscation of the US and its
quisling government in Baghdad, Fallujah is not a town
held hostage to a gang of insurgents or foreign fighters
led by the mysterious Abu Musab al-Zarqawi; it's a town
that has refused to be subjugated to the US occupation
in the same way as it refused to be subjugated to
British occupation in the early 20th century. The enemy
being hunted in the streets and markets of Fallujah
isn't Satan, it's the irrepressible desire of a people
to be free.
Amir Butler is executive
director of the Australian Muslim Public Affairs
Committee (AMPAC). He can be contacted at abutler@muslimaffairs.com.au
(Copyright Amir Butler)
Speaking
Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest
writers to have their say. Please click hereif you
are interested in contributing.
