Home > The escalation of Violence In IRAQ

The escalation of Violence In IRAQ

by Open-Publishing - Saturday 26 March 2005
9 comments

Wars and conflicts International

Does violence bring other than violence

The escalation of violence in Iraq has resulted in large numbers death among civilians. According to a study, published by the Lancet medical journal, the chance of violent death has increased by 58 folds after the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. The reasons for that escalation can be concluded from the following facts:

Prior to March 2003, large percentage of the Iraqis started to believe in the promises given by USA and allied countries for the installation of democracy and prosperity in Iraq. During the 2003 war on the former Iraqi regime the civilians stood away from the military activities. The Iraqi army fought and defended as any army should have done.

After the fall of former regime, massive destruction and looting of many and important establishments took place while the USA troops kept closed eyes to that and didn’t prevent it. Among the looted items were huge quantities of weapons and ammunitions of the Iraqi army, which ended in the hands of young Iraqis. The Iraqis started to question why the USA did so in spite of the fact they are responsible of keeping law and order as an occupying forces?

After that, Mr. Bremer issued orders to dissolve the Iraqi army, interior ministry and ministries of information and culture, thus throwing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis out of their jobs. Even traffic and customs police were dissolved . Nothing then was left to help the USA troops to keep law and order .

The Iraqi people waited few months for the promises given by USA to be fulfilled but very little was done.

The establishment of the " governing council " was made without consulting enough sectors of the Iraqis. Many parties were prevented from contribution. The council did not have enough authorities and Mr Bremer held all authorities and played the role of another dictator .

With the start of 2004, the abuses committed at Abu-Ghraib prison started to appear in the media. The Iraqis saw how their, relatives , women, men and children were mistreated, tortured and even raped. Those who were responsible for those abuses were not set to fair and justice trials. Those on whom the abuses were committed were not even asked to witness the trials !. The Iraqis started to feel the growing gap between the former promises and what they see and feel in every day of the occupation.

After the failure of the " governing council ", the " provisional government " started at the end of June 2004. Little was done towards the reconstruction of factories, refineries and other establishments. Iraq started to import fuel after it was exporting fuel !. The shortage in electric power become a major problem . However , huge amounts of the Iraqi money were spent and huge contracts were given to american companies that related to USA administration. Yet very little was achieved on ground in spite of the billions of dollars that have been spent .

The USA administration refused to set a time-table for withdrawing its troops from Iraq. It did not explain its future policies in Iraq . Thus the Iraqis began to be convinced that these troops will become invaders rather than liberators.

In many aspects of the day to day life in Iraq, the USA troops used excessive force. They imprisoned tens of thousands and till now they have thousands in Abu-Ghraib prison who are out of the authority of the provisional government ! .Sources speak of 25 other prisons scattered through Iraq . The prisoners were not send to proper trials ,and those who were released did not know the reason of their imprisonment.

The USA troops have fulfilled air raids and bombings on many Iraqi cities , like Falluja, Nagaf, Kerbella, Samara, Telafar, Al-Sader city of Baghdad, killing large numbers of civilians and destroying houses on the heads of their residence . The invasion of Falluja was the last tragedic acts .The reasons were to chase al-zarkawi and other rebels groups . No measures were taken to safeguard the lives of civilians . Al-Zarkawi escaped from capture and the violent events that he was accused of did not stop. The problems aroused from the invasion of Falluja become more than those before the invasion .

In simple words, the USA troops failed to behave like liberators, or peace keeping forces . They insisted on killing and bombing cities in which there are groups who oppose the USA policies . No respect was given to the Iraqis nor to their religion or traditions . Many of the frustrated and outraged Iraqis responded violently against the USA troops , the new Iraqi police and the key figures of the provisional government . The looted weaponry was a major contributor to the armed attacks. Encouragement and rebels from other countries also contributed to the violent events .

In a recent announcement , the director of the Iraqi intelligence estimated the Iraqi resistance by ( 200,000 ) person . Each one of them usually works with the help and knowledge of some relatives and friends , then one can estimate that one million Iraqis prefer resistance .

Consequently such large number worth the pain of listening to and negotiating with to arrive to peaceful solution.

The British troops in the southern part of Iraq behaved in much different pattern. One can easily see that violence in the city of Basrah is very little compared with that seen in Baghdad , Mosul and Ramadi.

It is up to the ruling system in any country , whether it is the USA or provisional government, to provoke violence or to damp it down . In which way will it treat people, the people will respond in a similar way. Violence can be easily grown up by a violent response .

After the election, the USA needs to start a new policy in Iraq . The peaceful solution of the IRA issue in Britain can be recalled to conclude similar solution . The USA generals serving in Iraq need to be exchanged with others . Much more role such be given to the united nations organizations . Such measures will help to calm down violence and help to convince more Iraqis that the multinational forces work to establish democracy and freedom.

Mohammed Younis
Mosul / IRAQ
25 March 2005

Forum posts

  • Thank you for your perspective. I am happy you have found this site.

    It seems that the US did everything they could to cause chaos, not stop it. We could have actually brought about the liberation we promised, but that doesn’t seem to be the intention. The longer the US stays, the longer US companies have to loot Iraqi resources, and steal from US taxpayers.

    I am so sorry for what we have done. So many of us have tried to stop this disaster long before it happened and we are in solidarity with the suffering people of Iraq. The most disturbing thing is the horrible treatment of innocent civilians. We are now committing the very same war crimes that we accused Saddam of. Why didn’t we at least stock the hospitals with the things they would need like medicines, bandages...in the unfortunate even that we might harm innocents? Instead the US prevented the "Save the Children" plane from landing with much needed supplies.

    The troops over there have been lied to. Many of them are just children, barely out of school. Most were just desperate for money or college educations which is why they signed up. The ’people’ that have sent them there are inhuman. They have no hearts. They have lost the ability to feel love, only greed. I would almost feel sorry for them if they weren’t harming so many people.

    Please, hang in there. The American people are waking up and we will stop these evildoers.

  • The American people ARE waking up and we will soon be a forcw to be reckoned with! As all the negligence of W’s Administration starts to hit everyone in their pocketbook then they will start to get really angry.
    The Media does not report the real news .... they make the news ie) Martha Stewart, Scott Peterson, Terri Schiavo, 10 year old girls missing. These are all a DISTRACTION of the real news....people dying daily at our hands in Iraq, Congress trying to do away with the right to fillibuster, W’s Budget that gives the rich tax breaks ($$), and cuts education, food stamps, Medicaid, elderly fuel assistance, etc... etc....
    This Administration continues to reward those who have comitted the most illegal, immoral acts by giving them positions in our Government.
    The people WILL rise up!! They will only take so much!!
    GOD BLESS THE IRAQI’S !!! They are very brave people.

  • Now the American/Israelian coalition is allowed to do it - sheltered by the UN - in Lebannon. It is no
    coincidence that America/Israel want to use the UN resolution to get Syria out of that country.
    Forgotten are the massacres in the Palestinian camps Sabra and Shatiala - encouraged by the jewish murder Ariel Sharon.
    Now they - America/Israel - the coalition of the vicious are allowed to do the same.

    • The cowardly American public will NOT rise up. They will take much more abuse from this government, MUCH MORE. They’ve aleady allowed illegally elected people to remain in office - the President, VP and most of the Republican Senators, so thinking that the American public will rise up and dethrone the most powerful empire in the history of the world is to have a very dim view of history. The American people are destined to live the rest of their lives in a controlled environment with no hope of escape. Those who flee the country in the next six months may have a chance at a "normal" life elsewhere, but whoever stays behind has only themselves to blame. We were all screwed from the moment the Supreme Court "elected" Bush in 2000. The phony elections of 2004 were just more of the same on a somewhat more grand scale. America is a shadow of what it used to be - basically, it sucks. Nobody is free, nobody can act for change. If you think that there will be a free and fair election anywhere in this country in your lifetime, well, maybe you’re 16! Get a grip, quit your job, take all the money out of your "retirement" plan, sell your house and all your assets and GET THE HELL OUT before it’s too late.

    • "When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall — think of it, ALWAYS."

      Gandhi

    • If everyone has your defeatist attitude NOTHING will ever change!! We can’t give up. There is power in numbers and I don’t believe the US is such a powerful Empire anymore, nor does alot of the rest of the world....absent our nukes we have a worn ragged military, a record debt owed to other Countries, and we do not produce any goods of value in this country anymore.
      SOME EMPIRE!!
      We will welcome you to join in the fight!

    • Every peace loving American needs to help us all to find an umbrella group site for us all to join with and work with to defeat the one party government in the U.S. The republipukes and the republipuke-lites (dems) have nearly ruined this country with their stealing from us and allowing the corporations to lie to the investors and sock away the money in foreign banks while they export our jobs and subvert our rights. The news media has been taken over by the religious right and the far right wing nut jobs, and the C.I.A. runs the country. But take heart my fellow peace lovers, WE HAVE THE NUMBERS, and it is time to join together to put down this fascism that has taken over our country. The people in this country have been brainwashed to think we as citizens don’t deserve anything for our tax dollars, nothing, no health care, no good paying jobs, no education, no improvement in the infrastructure, no truth, no accountability, no truth in media, and nothing else but another war, another weapons system, and another corrupt leader to steal from us. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH WE MUST UNITE.

  • What a darn good article, well done Younis.

    However, I do not share your belief, that better things will come down the track as a result of this illegal, murderous War Crime invasion.

    Further, I also share the belief, that the majority of U.S. citizens are cowards, too afraid to be honest with themselves firstly, and then with others around them.
    They certainly vocalise loudly from the higher moral ground, and look down upon us all, as inferior, and deserving of their bestowing upon us their blessings, then smiting us all with a baseball bat (so to speak) if we don’t respond with grateful kisses and supplication in response.

    I don’t doubt, that there are Good people in the U.S. however they are far outnumbered by the evil cowardly type, who are now so entrenched in local/state and Federal Govt as well as the Legal judicial systems, it’ll take decades to weed them out, or an event of cataclysmic proportions to bring things to a head. (could such an event be just over the horizon ? witness the increase of major earth quakes we are experiencing as well as the extreme weather changes, not to mention the claimed peak oil scenario )

    Either way, irrespective of events in the M.E. or Eastern Europe, America is in SERIOUS TROUBLE herself, which no amount of posturing and spreading democracy is going to cover up .

    I also believe, many U.S. citizens are slowly becoming aware of this, particularly since the last election wherein they reinstaled their hero.
    I strongly suspect, that before this year is out, MILLIONS of U.S. citizens are going to REGRET in a very major way, ever voting for this fool in the first place.
    However, such regrets are not going to effect events, DARK DAYS are indeed ahead for it’s citizens, the outcome of which we can only guess, my fervent wish is that good will triumph over the evil that is currently running rampant there.