We Must Stop the Terrorists’ War*

Issam Shukri

The formation of an Islamic-nationalist state in Iraq will not only be opposed to the civil and individual freedoms and rights of the people, but it will put the whole society on the brink of a new stage of a terrorist war between the United States on one hand and Political Islam with its local instruments in Iraq, on the other.

It is a well known fact that the ascension of the shi’ite Islamic Unified Iraqi Coalition UIC, by their marginal majority victory in the US orchestrated elections, has taken place due to the close supervision and enormous support of the Islamic regime in Iran. The latter has utilized the lack of security and chaos in order to be active and influential in Iraq. Despite being a representative of the Political Islam in Iran, The UIC maintains a fragile composition of different Islamic groups. These groups have opposed agendas that render the whole Coalition impotent of fully representing the aspiration of the Iranian political Islam in its entirety. The pro-American faction however, is planning to serve the interests of the US bourgeoisie through imposing Islam on the Iraqi society in a more acceptable ways to the US. In this regard, the pro-Iran Islamists in the Interim Government Muwaffaq Al-Ruba’ie has compared between their favorites by saying: ”America can not be here for ever, but Iran is here to stay !!".  If we unravel the nonsense covering his statement, we can simply say that the barbaric Islamic government in Iran he wishes to remain in power for ever is getting more fragile and flimsy by the growing power of the people of Iran. This emerging revolutionary power will uproot this rotten regime for ever; contrary to Al Ruba’ie’s wishes. Unless the US will impede that power by striking the regime and pump its popularity.

The US is globally at war with Political Islam. Despite the support to what the US right-wing Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld calls “moderate” Islam (versus the more hostile, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq – SCIRI), it is obvious that the US does not want a dominant hostile Iranian-style Political Islam in Iraq. Iran represents one of the poles of Political Islam in the region, therefore, the US would try to confront it in her most influential areas in the region namely Iraq and Palestine, and try to beat her there. This will grant the US a more free terrain for its maneuvering simply by confining Iranian political Islam back inside its borders.

The conflict between the US and Political Islam is deepening through out. It is deepening further by the more aggressive implementation of the US policy of New World Order pursued since the collapse of the Eastern Block. Iraq has already become an open battle field to that destructive and reactionary struggle. The United States has been threatening to strike the nuclear facilities in Iran. However, this is not likely to happen at the present situation. The US fears the deterioration of the situation in Iran if it attempted to strike the regime. It fears a political vacuum and the anticipated following chaos and disturbance of oil-production through the Gulf region if the Iranian regime was toppled. This political vacuum, if created, might also, and more importantly, lead the Left in Iran to take control. The situation in Iran is different than what had happened in Iraq or Afghanistan. The demarcation line here is the strength of left and the revolutionary forces in Iranian society today.

The US hesitation in Iran is further amplified by the failure it is facing in Iraq. The dilemma of the US bourgeoisie is to secure a pro-US government in Iraq that could be in control. This task seems farfetched at the moment and the US army is ever facing more causalities. The US is in a quagmire both politically and militarily in Iraq.

This means that the confrontation between the US and its enemy in the region; Political Islam would be mainly in Iraq and not Iran. The confrontation of America with the powers of the Political Islam in Iraq will be catastrophic. By the nature of their struggle, these monstrous forces of terrorism will not spare any human life in order to achieve their victory over their enemy. Millions of Iraqis are facing this fatal danger and would be subjected to the horrors of such extended reactionary confrontation.

The lines of this bloody confrontation shape the features of the political regime that America plans to install in Iraq with the full cooperation of their “tamed” copy of Islam. The proposed regime would fall within the constituency of the disguised Islamic state and not outside of it, i.e. not secular. This tamed Islamic state if found in Iraq, will make the Iraqi people pay a hefty price on two levels: 1) the repression and the violation of their freedoms especially for women, youth, workers, and secularists, and; 2) it would increase the bloody confrontation between anti-American Political Islam and the US army. The dark scenario would be even darker.

This said, it is required that people of Iraq and the world are brought to the forefront. But there are the obstacles which prevents them from doing so. Here comes the role of the Left into play; socialists, communists, secularists, and progressives who oppose the transfer of Iraq into a vile Islamic prison and put the fate of millions at the mercy of Islamists and the US military machine. The Left has the mandate of crushing the US-Islamic scheme which aims at turning the Iraqi society into an Islamic jungle.

In front of us lies two overlapping tasks; first to prevent the Iraqi bourgeoisie from forming an Islamic state whether pro-Iran or pro-US, whether headed by Al Hakeem or Al  Sistani or Al Jaafari or Al Chalabi. Second, which is more strategic and substantial, is to demand the expulsion of the US/UK forces from Iraq and the disarmament of all Political Islamic and nationalists gangs both pro and anti-US. This would pave the way for a real peaceful atmosphere for the people to exercise their will away from the yoke of these two terrorists.

For the first demand we must focus on the foundation of a secular non-nationalist state and the full separation of religion from state and education and the civil society in Iraq. For the second we must mobilize people around our demand of dismissing the American - British forces and disarming the national - Islamic gangs of all kinds.

This is a strategic alternative to end the terrorists’ war in Iraq and salvage the people from furthering the dark scenario. We must act promptly. We must be at the forefront.

* Translated from Arabic with slight adaptation.