- The US Air Force's senior officer, Gen. John Jumper,
stated US warplanes would remain in Iraq to fight resistance forces and
protect the American-installed regime "more or less indefinitely."
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- Gen. Jumper let the cat out of the bag. While President
George Bush hints at eventual troop withdrawals, the Pentagon is busy building
four major, permanent air bases in Iraq that will require heavy infantry
protection.
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- Jumper's revelation confirms what this column has long
said: the Pentagon plans to copy Imperial Britain's method of ruling oil-rich
Iraq. In the 1920's, the British cobbled together Iraq from three disparate
Ottoman provinces to control newly-found oil fields in Kurdistan and along
the Iranian border. The Sunni heartland in the middle was included to link
these two oil regions.
-
- London installed a puppet king and built an army of
sepoy (native) troops to keep order and put down minor uprisings. A powerful
British RAF contingent, based at Habbibanyah, was tasked with bombing serious
revolts and rebellious tribes. In the 1920's, government minister Winston
Churchill authorized use of poisonous mustard gas against Kurdish tribesmen
in Iraq and Pushtuns in Afghanistan (today's Taliban). The RAF crushed
all revolts against British colonial rule.
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- This is exactly what Jumper has in mind. Mobile US ground
intervention forces will remain at the four major "Ft. Apache"
bases guarding Iraq's major oil fields. These bases will be "ceded"
to the US by a compliant Iraqi regime.
-
- The supreme weapon of modern warfare, the US Air Force,
will police the Pax American with its precision-guided munitions and armed
drones.
-
- The USAF has developed an extremely effective new technique
of wide area control. Small numbers of strike aircraft are kept in the
air around the clock. When US ground forces come under attack or foes are
sighted, these aircraft are vectored to the site in minutes and deliver
precision-guided bombs on enemy forces. The effectiveness of this tactic
has led Iraqi resistance fighters to favor roadside bombs over ambushes
against US convoys.
-
- The USAF uses the same combat air patrol tactic in Afghanistan,
with even more success. In fact, this technique works well anywhere with
fairly open terrain. The US is developing three major air bases in Pakistan,
and others across Central Asia, to support its plans to dominate the strategic
region's vast oil and gas reserves.
-
- While the USAF is settling into West Asia, the mess
in Iraq continues to worsen. Last week's so-called "constitutional
deal" was the long-predicted, US-crafted pact between Shia and Kurd
giving them Iraq's oil and virtual independence. The proposed constitution
actually assures American big business access to Iraq's oil riches and
markets.
-
- The furious but powerless Sunni were left in the lurch.
Sunnis will at least have the chance to vote on it in a 15 September referendum,
but many fear it will be rigged.
-
- The US reportedly offered the 15 Sunni convention delegates
$5 million each to vote for the constitution but was turned down.
No mention was made that a US "guided" constitution for Iraq
clearly violates the Geneva Conventions.
-
- Chinese Taoists say you become what you hate. In a zesty
irony, the US now finds itself in a similar position as demonized Saddam
Hussein. Saddam had to use his Sunni-dominated army to hold Iraq together
by fighting Kurdish and Shia rebels. His brutal police jailed tens of thousands
and routinely used torture.
-
- Today, Iraq's new ruler, the US, is battling Sunni insurgents,
("al-Qaida terrorists," in the latest Pentagon double-speak),
rebuilding Saddam's dreaded secret police, holding 15,000 prisoners and
torturing captives, as the Abu Ghraib outrage showed. Much of the Louisiana,
Mississippi and Alabama National Guard were in Iraq this week instead of
at home.
-
- Meanwhile, the Kurds are de facto independent, the Shia
are playing footsie with Iran, and large parts of Iraq resembles the storm-ravaged
US Gulf Coast or vice versa.
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- Eric Margolis, contributing foreign editor for Sun National
Media Canada, is the author of War at the Top of the World. See his website.
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- Copyright © 2005 Eric Margolis
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