US Forces in Iraq Shift to Long-term Occupation

As the "last" combat brigade left Iraq, President Obama prepares to give a major speech next week.  He probably won’t claim victory; that would be laughable.  He will claim that the U.S. is taking responsible action, now that the Iraqis are ready to "step up" and run "their own" country.  This is the same plan the Bush regime had, but framed and re-branded, Obama-style, to cover a thoroughly illegitimate occupation.

Jeremy Scahill said on Democracy Now earlier this month that the combat role is shifting to the State Department, which "has plans to remake some US bases into what they call ‘enduring presence posts,’ EPPs. And so, you’ll have these outposts around the country that are essentially-what is essentially unfolding here is a downsized and rebranded occupation, Obama-style, that is going to necessitate a surge in private forces.

But don’t think the military is really leaving.  General Ray Odierno, who’s in charge in Iraq, says they’ll stay or come back at the discretion of the administration.  More troops left Ft. Hood this morning for Iraq, though not without protest. 

Josh and Ethan were in Iraq with Bravo Company 2-16, the unit whose Apache helicopter attack on civilians is now known to the world thanks to the Wikileaks "Collateral Murder" video. Ethan is seen in that video, carrying a wounded Iraqi child to find a medic. After returning from Iraq, Josh and Ethan wrote An Open Letter of Reconciliation and Responsibility to the Iraqi People: From Current and Former Members of the US Military.

Around the corner, the "Stop the Islamization of America" crowd, which numbered up to 1,000, had a full stage and sound, and its own variety of messages.  "We learned all we ever need to know about Islam on 9-11;" "No rewards 4 terrorism!" and "Remember 9-11!"  There were bikers, American flags, an effigy of a man in a keffiyeh, as if this was the last stand of "real" Americans.

The Islamic community center planned is completely in sync with the slick, mainstream, commercial re-building plan Bloomberg and the financiers of Wall Street put together for downtown New York.  Its imam travels the world, as he did during the Bush regime, trying to get Muslims not to hate the U.S. as part of the Obama administration’s re-branding of the so-called "war on terror" to the "overseas contingency operation, while Muslims are being pounded and killed in the US occupations. As Joel Bittar said in this video featuring the reactionary protest yesterday, "In all fairness, the United States has been building ‘ground zeroes’ near mosques since 2003."

That’s what this movement against Muslims and mosques and the "Islamization of America" is at its core: a base of support a "white, Christian America" and for a US empire dominating the world.  With their ideological brethren waving guns at immigrants in Arizona, and Beck/Palin staging a  "Restoring Honor" rally on the site and 47th anniversary of MLK’s I Have a Dream speech, this right-wing movement is neither "spontaneously" coming up from the people, nor is it going away.

"We’re At War With These People" said a protester against a new mosque in TN, quoted in the Washington Post, Far from Ground Zero, other plans for mosques run into vehement opposition.  I challenge almost every word of that claim, from who the "we" is to who "these people" are.  And this is what we, as people who want an end to the wars, and who care about humanity, should do.