Africa News

 

Africa

Class struggle erupts in South Africa

By Ann Talbot, August 27, 2010

The strike by 1.3 million public service workers in South Africa represents a significant escalation of the international class struggle in response to the global recession and the austerity measures that governments have adopted worldwide.

Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa

August 27, 2010

The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.

Tensions emerge between Rwanda and Western backers

By Linda Slattery and Ann Talbot, August 26, 2010

Tensions began to emerge between President Paul Kagame and his Western backers in the course of the recent elections.

South Africa: ANC government uses police, army and courts against strikers

By Ann Talbot, August 23, 2010

Strikers at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto and Helen Joseph hospital in Johannesburg were attacked by South African police using water cannon and rubber bullets last week.

Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa

August 20, 2010

The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature. http://www.wsws.org/wsws/dd-formmailer/dd-formmailer.php

More than one million public workers strike in South Africa

By Hiram Lee, August 19, 2010

More than one million public workers in South Africa went out on strike on Wednesday demanding higher wages.

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Pakistan’s floods, partition and imperialist oppression

 

 

30 August 2010

Over the past month more than a fifth of Pakistan’s territory and close to a quarter of its cropland have been engulfed in floods, creating a humanitarian crisis which UN officials describe as the greatest in that organization’s 65-year history.

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Twenty million people are now said to have been affected, whether by the inundation of their homes and workplaces or the destruction of their crops and livestock. Eight million Pakistanis require emergency relief, including many of the more than one million people who have been displaced in southern Sind just in the past few days.

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The official death toll is currently above 1,600, but it is universally conceded that it will rise much higher once the flood waters recede and the full extent of the destruction is revealed.

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The UN and international aid agencies warn that literally millions are at risk of death from acute cholera, other water-borne diseases, and hunger, since the government-led relief effort has failed to provide clean water, food and shelter to more than a tiny fraction of those affected.

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This is a calamity of monumental dimensions. Yet for the rival national bourgeoisies of Pakistan and India, who have been locked in a reactionary military and geo-political rivalry since their states’ birth as a result of the 1947 Partition of the subcontinent, it has been business as usual.

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Only after the floods had been ravaging Pakistan for more than two weeks did India’s government offer Islamabad a paltry $5 million in aid as a “gesture of solidarity with the people of Pakistan.”

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Pakistan then took a week to weigh the offer, citing the “sensitivities involved.” It took a telephone call from the Indian prime minister to his Pakistani counterpart and public prodding from Washington to get Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to announce that his government would accept New Delhi’s aid offer.

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The diplomatic to-do over providing a spoonful of aid to Pakistan’s flooded toilers elicited little comment from the press in either India or Pakistan. The countries’ respective media have a long history of echoing and amplifying the politicians’ nationalist and communally-charged claims, blaming all manner of social and political problems on the archrival’s “hidden hand.”

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The India-Pakistan rivalry and Partition are, however, very much at the root of the current tragedy.

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Defying socio-economic, historical, and cultural logic, the subcontinent was divided in 1947 by India’s departing British colonial overlords and the bourgeois politicians of the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League into a Muslim Pakistan and a predominantly Hindu India.

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The artificial borders imposed though Partition have made it impossible to rationally manage South Asia’s internal waterways so as to provide irrigation, electrification and flood-protection for all. Indeed, water is one of the principal issues in dispute between New Delhi and Islamabad, notwithstanding the World Bank-sponsored 1960 Indus Water Treaty.

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In India as in Pakistan, the ruling elite has failed to develop basic public infrastructure, preferring to squander vital resources on war and armaments, including nuclear weapons. India and Pakistan have fought three declared wars and less than a decade ago came to the brink of a fourth.

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Partition is treated by the ruling elites of India and Pakistan as a “birth-pang” in the emergence of “democratic India” and a “national homeland for South Asia’s Muslims.” This only underscores their callous indifference to the masses of South Asia, whatever their ethnicity, religion, or caste.

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The immediate outcome of Partition was massive communal bloodletting that resulted in the death of up to two million Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims and the forced relocation of 14 million people—the largest mass migration in human history.

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Partition defined and defines the “freedom” and “independence” incarnated in bourgeois India and Pakistan. Far from being an aberration, it was only the most bloody and immediately apparent consequence of the political suppression of the mass anti-imperialist movement that convulsed South Asia in the first half of the 20th century.

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The Indian National Congress led by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru presented themselves as the innocent victims of a Partition purportedly orchestrated by the British and the Muslim League. But if the bourgeois leaders of the Congress betrayed their own ideal of a democratic secular India uniting all the peoples of the subcontinent, it was because they were hostile to and organically incapable of mounting a struggle to unify South Asia from below through an appeal to the common class interests of the workers and peasants of the subcontinent.

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To the contrary, the growing wave of working class and peasant struggles in post-World War II India and the evident dissension within the ranks of the British Indian Army convinced the Congress leaders that they needed to get control of the colonial state forthwith to thwart social revolution.

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Post-independence, the rival regimes consolidated the rule of the bourgeoisie at the expense of the masses, preventing an agrarian revolution, protecting the wealth of the princes, and suppressing worker unrest.

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Six decades on, the rival bourgeoisies of India and Pakistan have proven their utter incapacity to resolve any of the burning democratic and social issues that confront the toilers of South Asia. Half of the world’s poor live in the subcontinent. In no region of the world is a greater proportion of the population malnourished. Neither the Indian or Pakistani state spends more than 5 percent of gross domestic product on education and health care.

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And in keeping with the reactionary logic of Partition and the Indo-Pakistani rivalry, no region of the world is less economically integrated.

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Unable to provide any progressive solution to the crisis of capitalist rule in South Asia, the Indian and Pakistani bourgeoisies have increasingly resorted to communalism, ethnic-nationalism, casteism, and religious fundamentalism to divide the masses.

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Partition was and remains a mechanism for imperialist domination of the region. The Pakistani bourgeoisie quickly accepted Washington’s offer to serve as a “frontline state” in the US’s cold war confrontation with the Soviet Union. Time and again, the US has propped up military dictatorships in Pakistan, most recently that of General Pervez Musharraf. With devastating consequences for the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the US partnered with Pakistani dictator General Zia-ul Haq in the 1980s to organize and arm the Islamic fundamentalist opposition to the pro-Soviet regime in Afghanistan.

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Today, in defiance of the sentiments of its own people, the Pakistani government is playing a pivotal role in supporting the US-NATO occupation of Afghanistan.

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The Indian bourgeoisie made a show of “independence” from Washington during much of the cold war. But this conflict was about nothing more than gaining greater maneuvering room and the terms of its subordinate relationship with world imperialism. Over the past decade, while the US has waged wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Indian bourgeoisie has forged a “global strategic” partnership with Washington.

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During the cold war, the US helped perpetuate and manipulate the Indo-Pakistani conflict in pursuit of its own predatory interests. Recently it has sought to lessen tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad. Hence its pressure on Islamabad to accept the pittance in flood relief money offered by New Delhi.

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But such actions are motivated solely by the US’s current strategic calculations. It needs Pakistan’s support in Afghanistan and wants Islamabad to use troops deployed on its eastern border with India to intensify the counter-insurgency war against anti-occupation forces inside Pakistan.

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Washington has spared no effort to scuttle the plans for a “peace pipeline” that would carry natural gas from Iran to Pakistan and then India, because it would undermine its campaign to economically isolate Iran. Similarly, the US ignored Pakistani warnings that the Indo-US civilian nuclear accord could trigger a nuclear arms race in South Asia, because Washington is eager to woo India as a strategic partner and counterweight to China.

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Six decades of independence have demonstrated the incapacity of the Indian and Pakistani bourgeoisie to achieve the fundamental tasks of the democratic revolution—the liquidation of landlordism, the abolition of caste oppression, the separation of church and state, national unification and independence. These burning tasks will be achieved only on the basis of the perspective of Permanent Revolution, i.e., as part of an anti-capitalist struggle led by the working class and embracing all the toilers and oppressed.

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In South Asia a key element in the perspective of Permanent Revolution is the fight to liquidate the 1947 Partition from below, through the establishment of the Socialist United States of South Asia.

Keith Jones

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Factory farms produce more than eggs

by: Phil Amadon

August 24 2010

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When I was a little boy, I remember following my grandmother out to the wooden chicken house on our family farm. There were eight or nine hens, softly clucking. We collected a few eggs every morning, stayed out of the way of the rooster, and I watched, surprised, when my tender, sweet grandmother slaughtered a hen from time to time.

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In the early 1970s, I took a job at a brand new "industrial" hen house in Indiana. A friend of mine had told me about hen house construction and how I could work on the crew, building A-frame chicken cages and hooking up the snow-plow-like devices that would move the manure out of the giant manure pits. Everything was clean and spotless because there were no chickens there yet.

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When the construction was done, I decided to stay on and help carry chickens upside down from the trucks and put them in their new homes. Chickens seem to become very quiet when you grab several of them and carry them upside down. But when they are jammed six to a cage, 20,000 to a house, 60,000 to the complex, their combined soft cluckings sound like a roar of a crowd after a touchdown at a football game.

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One of my fellow workers loved to walk into the chicken house first thing in the morning and yell drill sergeant style, "Chickens!" For a moment, 20,000 chickens would go completely silent, then pick up one by one until the dense roar was in the air again.

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The chickens, I was told, were given something in their food to make them lay eggs faster. They acted strange, attacking each other, sitting in the corner of the cage, dying. And they died by the hundreds. One worker was hired per chicken house to haul out dead chickens, to be taken away by the rendering truck, which picked up a 50 gallon drum of dead chickens every day. These were chickens who were brought to the house in the prime of their life, by chicken standards.

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At the end of the cycle, we carried the survivors upside down to the truck, where they were hauled to a plant to be made into chicken soup. I didn't eat canned chicken soup for 20 years after that. I still don't eat the brand name that used the chickens.

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The water pipes kept the water dripping continuously into each cage, and their feed was there for them all the time, laced with whatever needed to be in it to make them lay eggs faster than their nature meant them to. The conveyor belt that carried the massive supply of eggs to the packing house ran continuously at a certain time of day. The egg cases had little pictures of chickens walking in chicken yards with the sun shining and chickens wandering free underneath trees and sky.

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The pictures on the egg cartons looked a little bit like the backyard on our family farm in the 1950s, and I think that was just the point. The producers wanted us to think about something in our past when we broke the eggs in our pan and made our eggs scrambled or over-easy.

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I did some maintenance work at the chicken house, and I guess I didn't know what was happening to me as I did this work. The job I did was to replace chicken manure plow cables when they would break under the weight of the manure. The engineers had designed the cable to be a little too small to handle the great weight of the manure generated by 20,000 chickens per house. The manure pits in theory probably looked great but when we had to climb down into the pit with rain coats and leg-high rubber boots on to splice the cables with U-bolts, knee-deep in manure, it wasn't quite so nice as I am sure the blue print looked to the engineer who designed it. Even when we had taken the boots off and the rain coats off, the smell saturated our clothing.

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When we arrived at the local town bar for lunch, somebody would always call out, "Lord God, there comes the chicken crew!"

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It seemed to me that there were enough bad things going on that maybe we could have used a union. My parish priest had sparked my interest in the United Farm Workers in the 1960s, and I contacted the UFW who were organizing boycott activities in the region and talked to them about our situation and what it would take for us to become part of the United Farm Workers. I talked to several of my fellow workers and the task of unionization seemed overwhelming. The United Farm Workers didn't seem like it fit their organizing strategy, and my fellow workers thought being in a union was a pipe dream, and said "I won't be here too long." So I gave up.

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The smell did more than saturate my clothing. After a period of time, I begin to notice that my face and forehead ached, and then they ached all the time. I had splitting headaches. I went to the dentist because I thought I had an infected tooth. He told my friends who were with me, "He does not have an infected tooth; he has a massive sinus infection and needs to go to the emergency room immediately."

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I passed out on the way to the hospital. I looked at my signature later when I was admitted to the hospital. It was barely "chicken scratch." I was in the hospital for a week, shot full of the latest antibiotics of that time, having my sinuses drained with a great needle, and at the end of the stay, the doctor said to me, "Son, I have rarely seen a sinus infection so bad. If you had gotten it in the days before antibiotics, back in the day when I started practicing as a doctor, you would have died."

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I asked the doctor, "I worked in the big chicken houses-- do you think that had something to do with it?"

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"I don't know," he said. And that was the end of it. After having my sinuses drained one more time, I moved on with my life.

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Safety issues and farmworkers' rights, as brought out in the latest "egg scandal," were there for everyone to see at the very beginning of the factory farms, if you were there. I was there. I saw it. I felt it, but the overwhelming majority of people did not see it, did not feel it.

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The very positive work of the young activist in publicizing the terrible conditions at some factory farms makes a coalition ever more possible between farm workers, potential organic farmers, and the food-consuming public (meaning all of us).

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We must support the United Farm Workers and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee in their efforts to become nationwide unions, representing farm workers everywhere while keeping their wonderful grassroots qualities as both movements and effective unions.  

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If you are not already interested in organic food as a consumer, start studying the interconnection between organic food production, worker and consumer health, environmental quality, and animal protection.

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Even if you're not a vegan or vegetarian, there is a possible alliance with animal rights' activists and people who would like to eat organically grown, humanely produced meat, eggs, and milk.

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If you are in some way connected to a family farm or the agricultural industry, fighting for national policies that emphasize organic production and humane production benefits us all.

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Many farmworker rights activists, organic farmers, environmentalists, animal rights' activists, and consumers interested in consumption of organic milk, meat, and eggs have a natural common interest together.

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Photo: FarmSanctuary.org/CC

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World Notes: UN, Pakistan, Iran, Honduras, South Africa, Cuba

by: W. T. Whitney Jr.

August 23 2010.

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United Nations: Labor group reports bad news on young workers

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The International Labor Organization issued a report August 12 indicating that at the end of 2009 81 million people between 15 and 24 years of age were unemployed, up from 11.9 percent in 2007 to 13 percent last year. The report highlights the social risk of unemployed youth, a "lost generation" who, discouraged during a time of economic crisis, have abandoned the labor market. In these circumstances, young people in underdeveloped countries are seen as particularly vulnerable to underemployment and poverty. In 2008, young workers constituted 24 percent of the world's working poor and 18.1 percent of the world total of unemployed people. The report, accessible at www.ilo.org, shows young females experiencing more difficulties in finding work than young men.  

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Pakistan: U.S. base is protected at people's expense

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The Asian Human Rights Commission issued a statement August 20 condemning U.S. and Pakistani officials deemed as responsible for destroying a water bypass seven days earlier in Sindh Province. Pakistan's Army put Sports Minister Ejaz Jakhrani, elected from the area, in charge of the operation aimed at protecting the US - operated Shahbaz airbase from flooding. Water thus diverted inundated Jacobabad district, destroying hundreds of homes, drowning the town of Dera Allahyar, and forcing the dislocation of 800,000 people. It is alleged also that the base has been closed to relief agencies. With other airfields beneath water, that prohibition has hindered medical rescue missions and food supply flights from reaching areas of need. The statement is accessible at: www.ahrchk.net/

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Iran: Nuclear power plant is fueled

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On August 21, after decades of delay, the Russian - built Bushehr nuclear power plant began taking on fuel. International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors were on hand, although observers agreed the $1 billion plant poses no proliferation risk, especially as return of spent plutonium-containing fuel to Russia was written into the agreement. In June, Russia backed UN sanctions against uranium enrichment by Iran. Yet Iranian spokespersons claim enrichment would be aimed at producing fuel for electricity generation thereby removing dependency on Russian fuel. The Moscow Times reported the CEO of the Rosatom Corporation, builder of the power plant, as stressing international participation in the project. Supplies were "made from more than 10 countries," said Sergei Kirivenko.

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Honduras: Land dispute pits rich versus poor

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In July, soldiers harassed residents of Zacata Grande Island on behalf of Miguel Facusse. Thugs returned to the island in mid August, reinforcing demands that inhabitants leave. According to Rebelion.org, the real estate magnate, agribusiness mogul, and food manufacturer was targeting the ADEPZA cooperative, champion of land rights for families arriving on the sparsely populated island decades ago. Promising to build a school and deliver land to poor people, Facusse, whose ownership claims may be tenuous, promotes the island's exclusive Coyolito Club. Protests erupted in April following the killing in Colon of a peasant protesting Facusse's alleged illegal ownership of an African palm farm. Earlier he had suggested that confrontations reflect badly on "the image that Honduras projects to the world of the investors."

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South Africa: Massive strike portends future divisions 

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According to www.iol.co.za, it was "South Africa's worst industrial action." One million public sector unions affiliated with the COSATU labor federation launched an indefinite strike on August 19 when governmental offers of a seven percent wage increase and a $90 monthly housing allowance were rejected. Unions are demanding an 8.6 percent wage hike and a $130 housing allowance. Violence spread, security forces were mobilized, hospitals were barricaded, and criminal courts moved into high gear. Labor support for the Jacob Zuma presidency has plummeted. Strikers condemn government spending on World Cup facilities and on infrastructure projects, reports Al Jazeera. With government debt rising, inflation is at 4.2 percent and one million jobs have been lost since 2008, when joblessness was already 25 percent. A labor court on August 21 banned essential services workers from striking.

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Cuba: American Ballet Theater will visit 

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"We believe in the power of the arts to connect people and transform lives," said American Ballet Theater executive director Rachel Moore. She recently announced plans for the company to perform at Havana's International Ballet Festival in early November at the Karl Marx Theater. Later principal dancers will be offering additional performances. This, the U.S. troupe's first visit to the island in fifty years, comes two months after Alicia Alonso, Cuba's famous ballerina and director of its national ballet company, was honored in New York. AFP news speculates that the U.S. government will soon expand other educational and cultural contacts between the two nations subjected to a prolonged U.S. economic blockade.  

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Photo: Youth Fight For Jobs demonstration in the United Kingdom. (CC)

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U-turn in Afghanistan

by: Marilyn Bechtel

August 26 2010

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As the ninth anniversary of the war in Afghanistan approaches, the war is failing, casualties are escalating among both U.S.-NATO forces and Afghan civilians, and Americans' support for the conflict is at its lowest ebb. These trends increasingly find reflection in Congress. It's time for a U-turn, in Afghanistan and in U.S. foreign policy generally.

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Two polls released in mid-August show Americans' support for the war at its lowest point ever. The Associated Press found support reaching just 38 percent - down from 46 percent in March - while 58 percent said they opposed U.S. engagement in the conflict. Less than one in five think the situation in Afghanistan will improve in the next year, while 29 percent think it will get worse.

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A CNN poll put opposition to the conflict even higher, at 62 percent - up from 56 percent in May.

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But at the same time, a complicated dance is playing out at top decision-making levels, with new U.S. commander in Afghanistan General David Petraeus saying President Obama's July 2011 deadline to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan is "not the date when the American forces will begin an exodus," and the White House reiterating that the date is "non-negotiable." At the same time, the administration has set no timetable to complete the withdrawal.

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The BBC recently quoted Petraeus as saying next July is when "some tasks" will be shifted to "some Afghan forces in those areas where the conditions allow it." Defense Secretary Robert Gates has also said the troop withdrawals "will be of fairly limited numbers." Other officers are said to be pressing for more time, arguing that despite the war's long duration, counterinsurgency efforts have only begun to become effective in the last year or so.

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In a "Danger Room" interview with Spencer Ackerman, on wired.com, Petraeus elaborated further on a process of "thinning out" troops from more stable areas and "reinvesting" in less secure locations. A few combat brigades may actually return to the U.S., he said, but withdrawals beyond the 30,000 troops involved in this year's "surge" will depend on the security picture.

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Adding to doubts about the military's withdrawal plans are reports of three separate air base expansions, costing $100 million each, none of which are expected to be completed until the second half of 2011. According to the Washington Post, all are intended for use by U.S., not Afghan, forces. Overall, the report says, requests are now before Congress for $1.3 billion in additional fiscal 2011 funds for multiyear construction of military facilities in Afghanistan.

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A heavy cloud of doubt hangs over the military's claims, and future projections, of success. Firedoglake blogger Derrick Crowe recently cited an Afghan NGO Safety Office (ANSO) report saying nine Afghan provinces are experiencing more daily attacks since the latest surge began, while only one is experiencing fewer attacks. ANSO says the southern province of Helmand, site of the unsuccessful Marjah offensive earlier this year, saw insurgent attacks spike to 820 in the second quarter of this year, compared to 257 in the same period last year.

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Crowe also cites UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan figures showing Taliban assassinations doubling in the first four months of 2010, compared to a comparable period in 2009.  

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The offensive around the southern Afghan city of Marjah earlier this year failed, and a larger offensive planned for Kandahar province has been postponed.

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These trends, and the repeated tragic killings of innocent civilians during raids, are corroborated in reports emerging from Wikileaks' vast release of classified documents last month.

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All these factors - the enormous costs in lives and treasure, the deteriorating military situation, and the corresponding rise in popular opposition, are leading to a profound shift in viewpoints and votes in Congress. In July 114 members of the House of Representatives - 102 Democrats and 12 Republicans - voted against a $59 billion supplemental war funding bill, over half of which was for the Afghanistan war. Last year just 32 Democrats opposed a similar bill.  In May, 18 senators voted for an amendment by Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., calling for a withdrawal timetable.

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President Obama plans another review of the situation in December. This could open the way for a major change in direction, with a timetable for prompt troop withdrawal and emphasis on providing civilian development aid to Afghanistan through international agencies including the United Nations while negotiations on peace and regional stability take place within Afghanistan and with its neighbors.

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Such a much-needed first step could be the start of a more thorough reorientation of U.S. international policy, away from efforts at overt and covert military domination and toward international cooperation and mutual assistance.

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In that way, we can put our national treasure, both human and monetary, at the service of human needs - at home and around the world.

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Photo: Soldiers return after an air assault mission in the Zabul province of Afghanistan, Oct. 15, 2009. (Spc. Tia P. Sokimson/CC)

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Protesters to GOP Kirk: hands off Social Security; jobs now

by: John Bachtell

August 27 2010

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LISLE, Ill. - Angered by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk's repeated votes against extension of unemployment compensation and jobs creation, protesters crashed a posh Kirk fundraiser here Aug. 26.

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Chanting "Hands off Social Security" and "Jobs now!" demonstrators were blocked from entering the swanky affair by startled donors and eventually escorted out.

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Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill) has voted against working families too many times, and (his election to the US Senate) isn't going to happen," said Siobhan Kolar of Chicago Jobs with Justice. "He's a liar and a flip-flopper and we need to stop him."

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Kirk voted against the $26 billion HR 1586 Education and Medicaid Assistance Act, which among other things saved the jobs of 161,000 teachers including 6 thousand in Illinois alone. The bill saved the jobs of 158,000 other public employees including firefighters and police.

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Even with the bill's passage, 1,700 Chicago public school teachers and another 10,000 statewide will be fired adding to already over crowded classrooms.

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Kirk said he voted against the bill to prevent the budget deficit from getting worse. Most progressive economists maintain the deficit will get far worse with higher unemployment and deeper cuts to public services. JWJ, the AFL-CIO and others are calling for a tax on Wall Street speculators to close the deficit and fund jobs creation and public services.

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Kirk has also voted against extension of unemployment compensation 6 times for the same reason despite a 12% unemployment rate in Illinois.

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"In this economic time the people need a senator who is going to come in and work with the President and Congress to get resources back to communities, creating jobs and rebuilding the economy," said Rev. Michael Stinson, pastor of the General Assembly and Church of the First Born. "Mark Kirk is out of touch."

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"If the Republicans get control it's really going to be hard for President Obama to get legislation passed to rebuild this economy," said Stinson. "They want to go back to doing things like benefiting the upper crust of society and not the average people."

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Protesters were also concerned about where Kirk stands on privatization of Social Security and Medicare and termination of the Children's Health Insurance Program. According to DeLane Adams, Illinois State Director of Americans United Change, Kirk has been mum for months on where he stands on the detailed GOP privatization proposal put forward by Rep. Paul Ryan (WI).

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"There is a serious proposal for privatization from a Congressman who could one day be in a position to advance this Bush-era scheme for making Wall Street bankers richer.  We are just hoping to get a straight answer from Rep. Kirk on how he would vote. Right now, we're left to wonder if Kirk's silence has anything to do with the more than half a million dollars he has taken from Wall Street interests this year," he said.

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Photo: (John Bachtell/PW)

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The U.S. and Iraq: what now?

by: PW Editorial Board

August 27 2010

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Since President Obama took office, more than 90,000 U.S. troops have come home from Iraq. Last week, the Pentagon reported, the last U.S. combat brigade left. The number of U.S. combat troops there is now below 50,000, officials say. That fulfills Obama's pledge to pull out all but 50,000 troops by the end of this month, with the vow that the U.S. combat mission in Iraq is over. The question is: now what?

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Actually there are several big questions.

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To what extent are "combat troops" being replaced by Special Operations forces, other U.S. personnel, and private contractor mercenaries?

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Will all U.S. troops leave in December 2011, as the U.S.-Iraqi agreement specifies? Reports are that Special Operations forces will stay on. What about other U.S. forces and private contractors?

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What exactly is the U.S. role in Iraq between now and the end of 2011? And what will it be beyond that?

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What is the U.S. responsibility to the Iraqi people, and how should it be fulfilled?

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The president says the "transitional force" now remaining there will switch its focus from combat to "supporting and training Iraqi forces, partnering with Iraqis in counterterrorism missions, and protecting our civilian and military efforts."

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"Make no mistake: Our commitment in Iraq is changing - from a military effort led by our troops to a civilian effort led by our diplomats," he told a convention of Disabled American Veterans in Atlanta Aug. 2.

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He told the veterans he wants to bring the Iraq war to a "responsible end." We applaud that. Certainly, as we read of new rounds of vicious violence around Iraq, leaving dozens of innocent Iraqis dead and wounded, we ponder the U.S. responsibility for this violence. As we read about Iraq's ravaged economy, the sewage running in the streets, the lack of electricity, the joblessness, we remember that it didn't have to be this way.

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Some Iraqis, most notably the Iraqi Communist Party - with a heroic record of resistance to Saddam Hussein's bloody dictatorship - warned that a U.S. invasion was not the way to get rid of Saddam.

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After the shock and awe invasion, instead of handing over power to Iraqi democratic forces, the U.S. installed its own occupation viceroy, fanned sectarian discord, opened the floodgates of contractor boondoggles and corrupt cronyism - all focused on making Iraq and its vast oil a junior partner to U.S. oil interests.

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Seven years later, the thousands of dead and maimed, the shattered families - Iraqis first of all, but also Americans - present the U.S. with a profound responsibility.

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Yes we do have a responsibility to help Iraq train its armed forces and security personnel so they can protect their own people, and to provide them with the necessary resources, which the Bush administration failed miserably to do. But it's not our job to manipulate their economy or their politics, to pick and choose who should govern their country.

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We do have a responsibility to help rebuild their hospitals, water systems, schools, cultural facilities - wrecked in the invasion or later under our watch or by our own contractors. But the U.S. should not be directing the money or deciding the projects.

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Unfortunately, we're seeing some warning signs that point in the wrong direction. A massive State Department presence in Iraq is being developed. Vast numbers of private U.S. contractors are deployed there. And notions are being floated that the U.S. military presence may "need" to continue beyond next year.

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Let's make sure all of our occupation of Iraq ends - military, economic and political.

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It's time to shed the old foreign policy habit, that sees Iraq as nothing but a giant oil well to fuel America's oil-based economy, and a geopolitical pawn and military launch-pad to keep the rest of the region's oil flowing our way. We just can't afford it - not in taxpayer dollars, not in human lives, not in the survival of our planet.

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Photo: (CC)
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Principais tendências da história que os grandes factos dos últimos 100 anos revelaram

• Jorge Messias
  

Organização e ruptura

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Se alinharmos na memória as principais tendências da história que os grandes factos dos últimos 100 anos revelaram, chegaremos provavelmente à conclusão de que os tempos que hoje vivemos fazem parte da mesma espiral que agrupou acontecimentos decisivos que mudaram a face do mundo mas, depois, ficaram esquecidos, em suspenso, embora sem uma finalização definitiva. Por isso, muito do que agora nos parece novidade, já anteriormente deu lugar a terríveis lutas e indescritíveis sofrimentos. A história não se repete mas também não se esgota no esquecimento. Regressa quase sempre.

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Há de tudo neste passado recente que medeia entre o final da I Guerra Mundial e a ascensão do fascismo. A criação de novos focos de tensão que prepararam a expansão das potências imperialistas, a concentração das fortunas nas mãos de potentados financeiros e o incremento fulminante das indústrias de armamentos.

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Em contrapartida, a partir dos anos 20 presenciou-se um panorama social novo e desconcertante: a popularização dos novos meios de comunicação, como foi o caso da TSF, permitiu à extrema-direita, secretamente apoiada pelo poder capitalista supostamente «democrático», explorar os cenários políticos da demagogia, da propaganda e da cultura do mito. Os êxitos propagandísticos das forças fascistas junto de minorias influentes da população (nomeadamente entre os soldados desmobilizados e os desempregados) acabaram por criar elites que deram impulso aos novos exércitos de agressão e à sofisticada formação de polícias secretas de investigação e tortura. O nazismo «antes de o ser já o era», bem visível na famosa «Democracia de Weimar».

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Finalmente, embora deixando muito por citar, a própria organização capitalista conheceu viragens retumbantes. A nível do cume da pirâmide do poder, surgiram as Confederações empresariais apoiadas nos rendimentos astronómicos garantidos pelo Rearmamento e pela espoliação dos mais pobres: a Confederação do Aço, a Confederação da Potassa, a Confederação dos Armamentos, a Confederação do Comércio, etc. Os lucros amontoaram-se, deram lugar a apoios secretos de outros núcleos capitalistas mundiais e foram o gatilho da II Guerra Mundial – apocalíptica, devastadora, mas «criadora» de um punhado de fabulosas fortunas. No pólo oposto, vegetavam multidões crescentes de desempregados, de cidadãos sem lar, de famintos, de vítimas do racismo e de excluídos de toda a natureza – velhos, deficientes, ciganos, católicos progressistas, etc. - particularmente quando neles se pressupunham ideais marxistas.

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Veja-se só como quase tudo isto é actual, ainda que encoberto por nova “gramática” entretanto inventada; e como velhos factores letais, esquecidos e julgados definitivamente mortos, vão ressurgindo aos poucos nos cenários actuais.

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O apoio firme do Vaticano aos objectivos capitalistas do III Reich e às ambições delirantes do «Duce» italiano, raramente chegavam às colunas dos jornais e, muito menos, aos microfones da radiodifusão. Mas os factos passavam de boca em boca, sempre propagados pelo resistência antifascista, quase toda ela enquadrada por corajosos comunistas. Foi assim que se começou a murmurar acerca da existência de campos de extermínio nazis, das relações ocultas entre o nazismo fascista e o Vaticano ou quanto à verdadeira natureza de classe de obras como o «Socorro de Inverno» ou a «Sopa dos Pobres». A caridade, aparentemente movida pelos ideais cristãos, interessava aos governos fascistas para atenuarem os protestos das populações exploradas e condenadas à miséria. Caridade que se manifestou, por exemplo, na recolha de roupas quentes para os soldados nazis e na confecção de sopas aguadas que bichas infindáveis de judeus procuravam como única forma de sobrevivência. Estes laços de dependência produzem a submissão do explorado ao explorador. Desde o seu aparecimento sempre estiveram ligados a ordens religiosas, sobretudo às Misericórdias. Mas não deixa de ser curioso que a Igreja, impulsionadora inicial da «sociedade civil» e sua presente tutora, reclame agora para o Estado capitalista e liberal a paternidade e condução desta forma específica de «luta contra a pobreza»: «O papel dos poderes públicos é essencial (deverá ser o motor da estratégia) mas é indispensável que os numerosos actores que constituem a sociedade civil – associações de cidadãos, sindicatos, universidades, fundações, ONG's, associações de vários tipos, igrejas – contribuam também para o aparecimento de um entendimento correcto sobre o fenómeno da pobreza e a situação dos pobres e participem na estratégia a delinear.» (C. N. Justiça e Paz, 2008). Para a Igreja, declara-se também neste verdadeiro contrato-padrão entre o poder político e o poder religioso, a acção a desenvolver nas estratégias da luta contra a pobreza devem ser antimercantilistas. Mas que dizer, então, das montanhas de subsídios estatais pagos pelos governos às hierarquias católicas (só nos EUA, os montantes públicos desviados para instituições religiosas sob pretexto da sua participação no «combate à pobreza», orçam os 100 mil milhões de dólares anuais) ou do «milagre» dos multimilionários mundiais serem de súbito tocados pelo espírito da Caridade e “oferecerem” metade das suas fortunas para a constituição de novas Fundações capitalistas que façam diminuir o fosso entre ricos e pobres… Que manobras, que negócios, que alianças a alto nível, que «mafias», tudo isto ocultará?

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Avante

N.º 1917
26.Agosto.2010

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Nos 60 anos do início da guerra da Coreia

• Hugo Janeiro
  

«Os prejuízos ascendem a 65 biliões de dólares»

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Notas sobre a continuada agressão imperialista

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Cumpriu-se no passado dia 25 de Junho o sexagésimo aniversário do início da guerra na península coreana. A campanha em curso contra a República Popular Democrática da Coreia e o perigo de um novo conflito de consequências imprevisíveis na região obrigam a revisitar alguns factos da história do território, que nos últimos 60 anos tem sido alvo de permanentes agressões imperialistas.

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Num artigo recentemente publicado no sítio do Partido Comunista do Brasil, o historiador e secretário-geral da Fundação Maurício Grabóis, Augusto Bonicore, recorda os momentos fundamentais do início da contenda na península coreana, marcado, à nascença, pela ingerência imperialista.

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A guerra da Coreia foi o primeiro conflito armado entre os campos socialista e imperialista no rescaldo da Segunda Grande Guerra Mundial e fez parte da reacção das principais potências capitalistas à vaga emancipadora dos povos que, após a derrota do nazi-fascismo, alastrava pelo globo. Nela foram usados os métodos mais bárbaros, mas, não obstante, o imperialismo norte-americano acabou por sofrer a sua primeira derrota militar. O desaire é até aos dias de hoje uma espinha cravada na garganta do imperialismo mundial.

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Como se observa no texto disponível em www.vermelho.org.br, meses antes dos EUA desencadearem a agressão contra a Coreia, a Longa Marcha liderada por Mao Tsé-Tung havia triunfado e a nova China socialista consolidava laços com a URSS e com as jovens democracias populares que se afirmavam no Leste da Europa. Nos continentes africano e asiático outros focos de luta anticolonial emergiam.

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Por outro lado, depois dos crimes cometidos em Hiroshima e Nagasaki (os quais mostraram ao mundo a existência de um novo perigo – a detenção por parte do imperialismo de uma arma de destruição massiva com um incomparável poder destruidor face às predecessoras), a União Soviética acelerou a procura da paridade nuclear com os EUA, alcançando, posteriormente, o objectivo de conter a agressividade imperialista. Nunca é demais lembrar que somente os EUA já fizeram uso da bomba atómica.

Da guerra mundial à guerra na península

É pois neste contexto adverso ao imperialismo que ocorre a guerra da Coreia, território libertado pelos comunistas coreanos, liderados por Kim Il-sung, após mais de quatro décadas de ocupação japonesa. A expulsão dos imperialistas nipónicos foi o culminar de um longo processo de resistência que levou à capitulação do Japão às mãos da coligação antifascista, em 1945.

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Com o fim da Segunda Grande Guerra Mundial, a península coreana foi, tal como a Alemanha, dividida em áreas supervisionadas: a Norte os soviéticos e a Sul os norte-americanos. A separação era, no entanto, uma solução provisória, pois cedo ficou acordada a unificação do território entre as forças vitoriosas do grande conflito mundial.

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Porém, em Agosto de 1948, Washington promove a Sul do paralelo 38 a eleição de um governo imbuído de um anticomunismo primário e afecto aos seus interesses geoestratégicos, iniciando uma série de violações ao acordo com Moscovo e as forças progressistas norte-coreanas. EUA e URSS abandonam a península, mas a partir do Sul, desencadeiam-se constantes provocações visando promover uma campanha militar contra o projecto socialista do Norte e o restabelecimento da integridade territorial.

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O conflito acabou por eclodir. Porém, em poucos dias, o exército norte-coreano logrou derrotar as forças comandadas pelo títere sul-coreano Synghmam Rhee. Seul foi rapidamente conquistada e a pretendida unificação do território era uma realidade tangível.

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Atentos e dispostos a não ceder um palmo ao socialismo, às forças progressistas e ao poderoso e revigorado avanço do movimento operário mundial, os EUA não deixaram que a contenda se mantivesse entre o povo coreano. Intervieram abertamente. Primeiro usando a ONU para condenar a campanha unificadora da Coreia do Norte, depois avançando para o terreno. A presença militar foi travestida de «força» com mandato internacional, prática que, aliás, fez escola até aos dias de hoje. Dezena e meia de nações faziam parte da coligação interveniente, mas eram os EUA quem ditava ordens e eram também as forças armadas norte-americanas o grosso da coluna ocupante.

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Mas o exército norte-coreano era uma força treinada em duras batalhas pela liberdade e a soberania da península, uma aspiração enraizada nas gerações que lutaram pela libertação do território do jugo colonial. Imprevisivelmente o general Douglas MacArthur (que acumulara prestígio com a vitória sobre o Japão no Pacífico) e as tropas que comandava foram rechaçadas. Era preciso usar mais e mais poderosos meios. Assim, a Casa Branca fez deslocar para a península um contingente aéreo só comparável ao usado anos antes contra a Alemanha nazi. Cidades, vilas e aldeias da Coreia eram diariamente fustigadas com bombardeamentos. Toneladas de napalm arrasaram quase todo o território.

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No final da agressão imperialista contra a RPD da Coreia, em 1953, restavam dois edifícios de pé em Pyongyang. A capital da actual República Popular Democrática da Coreia, tal como dezenas de outras cidades, teve que ser totalmente reconstruída. Só quem ignora este facto pode, no quadro da campanha ideológica que desde então decorre sem pausa, insistir, por exemplo, que os «monótonos edifícios» de Pyongyuang e as suas largas avenidas foram construídos com o fim de apurar o controlo social e a manutenção da «ditadura comunista».

Crime sem perdão

Armas químicas e bacteriológicas foram usadas pelos norte-americanos em larga escala durante a agressão. Ao contrário dos EUA, a URSS absteve-se de entrar directamente no conflito inter-coreano. Foram os norte-americanos que repetidamente espezinharam os acordos que determinavam a unificação do território.

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Acresce que as forças reaccionárias sul-coreanas e os EUA violavam permanentemente os acordos de Genebra, deixando claro que o ventre que havia parido a besta nazi-fascista era ainda fértil para dar à luz novas hordas criminosas. Em face disto, desenvolveu-se uma intensa campanha mundial contra a ingerência imperialista na península coreana.

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No campo militar, os EUA avançaram sobre Pyongyang, visando calar pela força das armas o movimento unificador que resistia sob a bandeira do socialismo, mas a China revolucionária sentiu o bafo do imperialismo e reagiu. Um exército de voluntários foi constituído e enviado para lutar ao lado do exército popular coreano. A acção da China revolucionária foi determinante, uma vez que as tropas invasoras norte-americanas voltaram a ser rechaçadas para o extremo Sul da península.

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MacArthur encontrava-se derrotado e a solução que propunha era o bombardeamento massivo do território chinês, admitindo, inclusive, o uso de armas atómicas. O conflito regional estava prestes a desencadear um novo conflito mundial, observa Augusto Bonicore no artigo difundido pelo vermelho.org.br.

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Países como o Reino Unido ficaram alarmados com tal possibilidade, nota ainda o historiador brasileiro. «Grandes manifestações foram realizadas em todas as partes do mundo pela paz na Coreia e contra utilização das armas atómicas. Por fim, o próprio presidente Truman não endossou as propostas temerárias do aventureiro MacArthur e destituiu-o do comando das operações», lembra a este propósito.

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A hipótese de um ataque nuclear contra a RPD da Coreia não deixou nunca de ser admitida entre os círculos dirigentes norte-americanos. São frequentes nos tempos que correm as notícias sobre a possibilidade do Pentágono desencadear um «ataque nuclear preventivo» contra a Coreia do Norte.

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Já nas décadas de 60 e 70 do século passado, as administrações norte-americanas haviam ponderado tal cenário. Revelou recentemente o jornal El País que o chamado plano «Freedom Drop» foi avaliado por Richard Nixon e pelo então secretário da Defesa, Melvin Laird, responsável que terá mesmo calculado as vítimas norte-coreanas resultantes desse ataque entre «uma centena e alguns milhares».

Armistício sem paz

A actual situação de armistício entre as duas coreias sem a assinatura de um tratado de paz que terminasse, definitivamente, com a guerra iniciada em 1950, acabou por resultar do impasse militar. Reforçados pelo contingente chinês, o exército popular coreano conseguiu, em 1953, manter as forças imperialistas no paralelo 38. Ninguém era capaz de fazer retroceder o inimigo e, assim, iniciam-se as negociações de paz.

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Em Julho de 1953 é assinado o armistício, mas a paz nunca chegou e até agora subsiste um clima de tensão latente favorável aos objectivos do imperialismo.

Números de uma guerra com seis décadas

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Num artigo publicado na edição electrónica do Tribuna Popular, órgão central do Partido Comunista da Venezuela, é possível encontrar dados valiosos que nos permitem não apenas aquilatar a intensidade da guerra movida pelo imperialismo contra a RPD da Coreia durante os últimos 60 anos, mas também compreender melhor porque é que o governo de Pyongyang e o povo norte-coreano mantêm as mais sérias reservas em relação aos EUA, considerando aquele país o seu mais acérrimo inimigo.

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O documento divulgado no passado dia 24 de Julho pela Agência Telegráfica Central norte-coreana (ATC) sublinha que «os imperialistas yankees cometeram matanças, destruíram, saquearam e praticaram outros crimes de guerra bárbaros e antiéticos sem precedentes na história mundial das guerras, provocando ao povo coreano tremendos sofrimentos».

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Prova disso são os factos e os dados enunciados, dos quais destacamos:

• A política de embargo e ostracização internacional visando derrubar o regime coreano, violando flagrantemente a Carta da ONU e reconhecidas normas do Direito Internacional. Em termos económicos, os prejuízos ascendem a 65 biliões de dólares nos últimos 60 anos, diz o Comité de Averiguação dos danos causados pelos EUA que se socorre do método internacionalmente reconhecido para efectuar estes cálculos.
  
• As inúmeras perdas políticas (atentados contra a dignidade e soberania da RPDC e do seu povo), morais (constante pressão psicológica) e culturais (a destruição de lugares, património e vestígios de interesse histórico durante a guerra) são incalculáveis em dinheiro. «Em particular, não se pode reparar as perdas sofridas pelo povo coreano devido à ocupação ilegal do seu território e em virtude do impedimento da reunificação da Coreia», dizem.
  
• Os crimes de extermínio da nação coreana, iniciados antes do desencadear da guerra, nomeadamente o assassinato e sequestro de mais de 13 900 pessoas. Os selváticos genocídios levados a cabo durante a guerra coreana deixaram lastro. Durante três anos do conflito, mais de 1 230 000 civis perderam a vida.
  
• O uso de armas químicas e bacteriológicas, meios de extermínio proibidos pelas convenções internacionais, difundiram pelo país pragas e doenças. A título de exemplo, só nos três primeiros meses de 1952 a aviação norte-americana atingiu com este tipo de armas mais de 400 localidades da Coreia Popular em cerca de 700 missões aéreas. Mais de 50 000 pessoas morreram com peste, cólera, hemorragia epidémica, varíola ou em resultado das bombas de gases tóxicos nesse período, acrescentam.
  
• Sem respeito pelas normas internacionais sobre a matéria, os EUA trataram de forma desumana os prisioneiros de guerra e usaram mesmo alguns como cobaias.
  Mais de 2 463 000 soldados ficaram feridos e destes quase 295 000 resultaram inválidos para o trabalho.
  
• Já depois de terem assinado o armistício, em 1953, os EUA mantiveram a política de ingerência, provocação, «ataque militar, assalto, terrorismo e sabotagem da RPDC», diz o mesmo documento da Agência Telegráfica norte-coreana, causando a morte ou ferimentos graves a quase 25 000 pessoas ao longo de mais de meio século. Um dos exemplos é a responsabilidade da CIA no atentado ao avião da Cubanair, em 1976, no qual morreram 73 pessoas. Entre estas encontravam-se funcionários norte-coreanos. As estatísticas mostram igualmente que os actos terroristas e de sabotagem após a assinatura do cessar fogo provocaram a perda de mais de 3000 fábricas, empresas e casas, destruíram milhares de hectares de terra fértil e floresta, e eliminaram milhares de cabeças de gado.
  
• O total dos sequestrados ascende a 912 000 indivíduos e outros quase 400 000 encontram-se desaparecidos. É incalculável o total de pessoas cujos direitos foram espezinhados e o número de mulheres violadas ou usadas como escravas sexuais durante os períodos de ocupação territorial dos EUA no decurso da guerra.
  
• É elementar e um princípio sadio para a paz que os culpados peçam desculpa pelos crimes cometidos e compensem as vítimas. Os EUA nunca pediram desculpa pelos crimes cometidos na Coreia, os quais, se considerarmos o tamanho do território e a sua população, podem ser equiparados aos mais horrendos crimes cometidos contra a humanidade, frisa ainda a ATC.
  
• Durante a guerra, 78 cidades foram pura e simplesmente riscadas do mapa. Quase 60 000 edifícios fabris e estruturas produtivas foram arrasadas pelo napalm e outras bombas, bem como 28 500 escolas, mais de 4500 edifícios de saúde pública, 579 edifícios de investigação científica, cerca de 8000 edifícios de imprensa e cultura, mais de 2 000 000 de casas e quase 7500 edifícios religiosos. No total foram destruídos completa ou parcialmente 2 milhões 416 mil 407 edifícios, calcula-se no relatório da ACT. Quase todos os bens pessoais da população coreana desapareceram nos escombros.
  
• Quase 5000 quilómetros de ferrovia ficaram danificados, ao que se somam outros tantos quilómetros de estradas e 1109 quilómetros de pontes, 1489 locomotivas, quase 5000 camiões e mais de 6000 barcos de pesca e transporte de carga. O grau de destruição da Coreia foi tal durante os três anos de guerra que os próprios norte-americanos admitiam que a sua reconstrução demoraria um século, lembra o supracitado documento, o que atesta, destaca-se também, que o conflito promovido pelos imperialistas foi dos mais bárbaros da história da humanidade.
  
• Entre a expulsão dos ocupantes japoneses e o início da guerra com os EUA, o Norte da península coreana forneceu o Sul de electricidade e água potável. Se bem que os norte-americanos e as autoridades a seu mando cobrassem grossas tarifas e impostos, os norte-coreanos ainda esperam que a dívida pelo prestação daqueles serviços seja saldada.
  
• Os prejuízos ambientais e nos recursos naturais são, igualmente, arrolados no relatório. Estima-se que a pulverização com desfolhante na zona desmilitarizada após a guerra tenha causado perdas agrícolas na ordem dos 4500 milhões de dólares. No total, ao longo de décadas o governo da RPDC gastou 505 356 000 de dólares na descontaminação do meio ambiente e no combate às pragas disseminadas pelos aviões norte-americanos.
  
• A manutenção dos exercícios militares e de um clima belicoso obriga a Coreia do Norte a gastar milhões. A permanente ameaça de guerra leva a gastos astronómicos no aparelho militar, somas que podiam ser canalizadas para o «desenvolvimento planificado e equilibrado da economia nacional», diz a fonte citada pelo Tribuna Popular. Só os exercícios civis na Coreia do Norte já consumiram 2 380 186 000 de dólares, notam.
  
• Depois do recuo temporário das forças socialistas, no início dos anos 90, e já no dobrar do novo milénio, os EUA usam todos os meios – bloqueio e perseguição das transacções comerciais e financeiras, assaltos piratas a barcos da RPDC e confiscação dos seus bens, para asfixiar economicamente a Coreia do Norte. Só contando com as manobras publicamente conhecidas, as perdas neste particular elevam-se a quase 14 biliões de dólares, acrescenta a ATC.

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* Com informações publicadas em www.vermelho.org.br e www.tribuna-popular.org

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A falsa retirada do Iraque

«O total de empresas de segurança vai duplicar»

Soldados ocupantes substituídos por mercenários

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Os EUA confirmaram que o número de soldados presentes no Iraque é o menor desde o início da invasão do país, em 2003. O facto está a ser usado como manobra de propaganda com o objectivo de esconder a manutenção de uma força ocupante e a substituição de soldados por mercenários.
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 A declaração de Barack Obama, anunciando o fim da missão de combate naquele território e o início de «operações contraterroristas» levadas a cabo por uma «força de transição» até à retirada «das tropas norte-americanas em 2011», já havia feito as parangonas no início do mês de Agosto. Mas o que encheu com estrondo as manchetes dos meios de comunicação social dominante foi a confirmação de que os EUA mantinham no Iraque o menor número de soldados desde o início da guerra contra aquele país.

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Efectivamente, com a retirada da quarta brigada para o Kuwait e a transferência de homens e meios de guerra daquele país do Médio Oriente para o também ocupado Afeganistão, o total de soldados de Washington ronda os 55 mil, podendo mesmo ser reduzido para 50 mil até ao próximo dia 31 de Agosto.

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Mas quanto a factos correspondentes com a realidade, ficamo-nos por aqui. É que à boleia do abandono de uma parte do contingente – importa não esquecer que se manterão no Iraque 50 mil militares estrangeiros – o governo dos EUA aproveita para fazer crer que a força remanescente deixará de realizar operações de combate, passando apenas a prestar treino aos militares iraquianos, e que o prazo limite para o abandono definitivo é o ano de 2011.

Declarações ocultadas

Ora a verdade é que para funcionários de elevada responsabilidade, como o comandante militar David Patreus, os EUA não só não estão a sair do Iraque como conservam «uma enorme capacidade [operativa]», disse em entrevista à CBS.

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No mesmo sentido, a Inter Press Service apurou junto de fontes ligadas às altas esferas governamentais que os 50 mil soldados remanescentes não confinarão as suas missões a treinos ou a operações de defesa do pessoal e instalações norte-americanas.

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Quem parece ter também ignorado as palavras do presidente foi o secretário de imprensa do general Patreus, Geoff Morrell, sublinhando «que eu saiba ninguém declarou o fim da guerra».

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No mesmo sentido, para o vice-assistente do secretário da Defesa, Colin Khal, os EUA estão no Iraque «para ficar por muito tempo» e qualquer decisão está suspensa até «ver o que o governo iraquiano vai fazer».

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A frase, aparentemente enigmática, tem vindo a ser desconstruída na imprensa norte-americana, a qual especula sobre a possibilidade do futuro governo do território preparar um novo pedido de permanência dos EUA no país assim que tomar posse.

Empresas de segurança duplicam

Acresce que a manutenção de dezenas de milhares de soldados no Iraque - nas palavras de quem manda por largo tempo e com as funções que agora cumprem - é acompanhada pela substituição dos soldados retirados por milhares de mercenários ao serviço de empresas de segurança.

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A decisão de substituir a força militar para uma outra «civil» foi tomada numa reunião de altos responsáveis militares norte-americanos, ocorrida a 19 de Julho deste ano, embora tal só tenha sido claramente admitido a partir de 16 de agosto.

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O plano é dar ao Departamento de Estado um papel mais efectivo na coordenação das operações e mantê-lo ligado às empresas de segurança privadas. Estas dotar-se-ão de helicópteros, carros de combate e capacidade para operar radares, de forma a poderem pedir ataques aéreos e pilotarem aeronaves não tripuladas, informou o New York Times.

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A duplicação do número de empresas contratadas no Iraque não é uma hipótese. O porta-voz do departamento de Estado, P.J. Crowley, admitiu que o total de empresas contratadas no Iraque pode ascender a sete mil, admitindo, igualmente, que os EUA «têm planos muito específicos para assegurar a segurança quando os militares partirem».

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Actualmente estão no Iraque 112 mil mercenários ao serviço de diversas companhias, aos quais se juntam mais de 11500 indivíduos inscritos como seguranças privados e pelo menos 1200 a título de conselheiros de segurança, adiantou, por seu lado o Guardian.

O novo papel da CIA 

De acordo com o New York Times, a agência de serviços secretos norte-americana está a assumir cada vez mais um carácter paramilitar, aprofundando, a partir da entrada em funções de Barack Obama, a realização de ataques com aviões não-tripulados e a eliminação de suspeitos de terrorismo.

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O assessor do presidente dos EUA, Jonh Brennan, qualifica as novas directrizes como uma substituição da política do martelo pela do bisturi.

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Para além disso, a ligação a empresas de serviços de segurança também se incrementou, sobretudo no Paquistão e no Norte de África com a concretização de operações encobertas de detenção e assassinato de alegados grupos extremistas.

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Avante N.º 1917
26.Agosto.2010
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