OFFICE OF THE CHAIRPERSON
International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS)

Press Statement
19 March 2008


Endt he Barbaric US War of Aggression Against the People of Iraq

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International
Coordinating Committee

International
League of Peoples' Struggle

TheUS war of aggression againstthe people of Iraq entersits fifth year and the USsinks deeper into the quagmire. The costof this criminal and barbaric war for the Iraqi people according to the OxfordResearch Bureau is 1.3 million dead, 2 million displaced inside Iraq and 2.5 million more who are refugees in Syria and Jordan. The Iraqi economy and social infrastructureare in ruins.

For the US, the war has cost more than3,990 soldiers killed and more than 30,000 wounded. 2007 was the deadliest year for US soldierswith 899 deaths. Department of VeteransAffairs (VA) hospitals and clinics have treated over 260,000 patients from the US wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Studies show that as many as half of thesoldiers sent to fight in Iraqwill return with post-traumatic stress disorder and a fifth are returning withtraumatic brain injury, physical brain damage mainly caused by roadside bombs.

Nobel-prizewinning economist Joseph Stiglitz estimates in a new study that by 2010 the warwould cost the US1 to 2 trillion dollars. According tothe Washington-based Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, Congresshas now approved nearly $700 billion for the wars in Iraqand Afghanistan. Using inflation-adjusted figures, the totalcost of those wars has now surpassed the total cost of the Vietnam war (whichran to $670 billion), more than seven times larger than the cost of the PersianGulf War ($94 billion) and more than twice the cost of the Korean war ($295billion) .

The great majority of the American people opposethis criminal war waged in violation of the UN charter and internationallaw. They voted for the Democratic Partyin the 2006 mid-term elections, giving it a majority in Congress and the Senatebased on the platform of putting an end to the war and bringing the troopshome. But the Democratic Party hasfailed to carry out what it has been mandated by the electorate to carry out.In the final analysis, both the Republican and Democratic parties serve theinterest of the USmilitary industrial complex, the oil monopolies and war contractors.

Theycontinue to subvert the will of the American people by indefinitely prolongingthe occupation of Iraq andentrenching US military bases at all strategic points of Iraq. They carry the illusion that the US can dominate the Iraqi people and take overthe oil resources of Iraq. They do not realize that even now the costsfor the US in carrying outthe invasion and long-term occupation of Iraqhave become a major factor for the profound debilitation of the US due tooverreaching and overspending without reaping the previously expectedprofits.

Bush andthe big corporate media are now spreading the lie that the so-called surge orthe addition of 30,000 troops last year is gradually succeeding in containingthe violence and reducing American casualties. More USmilitary troops, mercenaries and puppet troops are being deployed in Iraq. The US militaryforces are using aerial bombings in a futile attempt to reduce, cover up andavenge American losses. In 2007, therewere at least 1,119 air strikes, according to the US Air Force, compared with229 in 2006. These bombings have resulted in the further destruction of Iraqilives, homes and infrastructure.

An example is the large-scale bombing of a populous Baghdad suburb on Jan. 10, 2008. A US militaryspokesman said that the operation "was one of the largest air strikessince the onset of the war." Two B1-B bombers and four F-16 fighter jetsdropped nearly 50,000 pounds of precision-guided explosives on a heavilypopulated neighborhood. Many civilians were killed and the great number offamilies fled in terror.

The USis now in the process of working out with the puppet Maliki government the termsfor laying down the legal basis for the continued presence of US troops andpermanent military bases in Iraq. This is to insure USimperialism’s objective of securing its control of the world’s second-biggestoil reserves and reinforcing its politico-military hegemony over the Middle East and the rest of the world.

But the Iraqi people are persevering in their revolutionary struggleand are intensifying their armed resistance to the imperialist occupation. They are fighting for their own nationalsovereignty , homeland and national salvation.
They can only suffer further national oppression, exploitation, impoverishment and social devastation if the US imperialists and their puppetscontinue to have their way.

The Iraqi people have all the sacred right and obligation tothemselves to fight for national liberation, democracy, development, socialjustice and peace against USimperialism and the reactionary puppets. We are confident that, as in theVietnamese struggle for national liberation against USaggression, the Iraqi people will eventually force the US to withdrawin defeat. Right now, the resistance of the Iraqi people and the costs ofaggression are making a paper tiger out of US imperialism.

The Iraqi people have a just revolutionary cause. They therefore enjoy abundant support fromthe peoples of the world. In thisconnection, we call on all the peoples of the world to commemorate the fifthanniversary of the US war ofaggression against Iraq bycondemning such war, renewing their active support for the Iraqi people anddemanding the withdrawal of the USmilitary forces and the end to this unjust war of aggression against the peopleof Iraq.###