Stephen Von Sychowski
Communist Party of Canada, Prince George Collective
In 1958 there was a Revolution in Iraq. The monarchy of Iraq had been kept in place mostly by the British and French and was very much controlled by them. Western oil companies had owned 95% of Iraqi oil during the monarchist period. The British and French governments had to protect the interest of those who keep them in power, including these big oil corporations. As a result, when the people of Iraq rose up in 1958 to smash the monarchy, Britain and France sent thousands of troops to support the monarchists. But it was too little too late. The monarchy was defeated and a new government was installed.
This new government brought the nationalization of oil. The oil money was diverted from the pockets of western corporations into social services for the people of Iraq who had been living in poverty for years despite their natural wealth. New civil rights were introduced, women gained greater rights than they had ever seen under the monarchy. 70% of the money from oil sales was put into the purchase of food, drink, and medical supplies for the people of Iraq. This was necessary because Iraq has little means of creating these thing's itself. This explains why the current U.N. trade embargoes are so harmful to the populace of Iraq.
This new government proved much too left wing for the tastes of the United States and other western capitalist nations. In 1968 a CIA coup put the Baath party into power. Its leader at the time was President Bakr but by 1979 Saddam Hussein took control of the country and Bakr resigned. The U.S. government had wanted to install a new puppet government like the monarchy, who would conform to the demands of the western capitalist nations especially the United States. They also wanted a man in charge who would fight America's enemy Iran in the Iran-Iraq war. But although Saddam proved to be a relatively brutal dictator from time to time, he was not enough of a tool of western imperialism to keep the west satisfied for long. Although there has been oil trade between Iraq and western companies under Saddam's rule, there is not the degree of western control that there once was. Saddam has defied to orders of the western imperialists on several occasions. As a result the Gulf war was launched, with a devastating effect on the people of Iraq which still lingers today in the form of cancer and birth defects caused by depleted uranium bombs used by the U.S.
Furthermore, there has been an extensive campaign of propaganda against the Baath government, most of the claims made in this propaganda have been proven false or have no supporting evidence. Occasional bombing campaigns have been launched against Iraq when it does not do as told. And economic sanctions continue to decimate the population.
Saddam Hussein and the Baath party did not come to power through democratic election, nor through mass uprising. And although they have committed human rights abuses, and will likely continue to. And although they have been guilty of the un-justified arrest and/or murder of leftist activists, union activists, communists, socialists, and other opposition groups, they continue to hold the support of the majority of Iraqi's. Their dictatorship is of course not favorable, but it is perhaps more democratic than the current regime in the United States which, arguably, was also not elected. Who are we to decide for the Iraqi masses what government they must have?
The impending war on Iraq is simply an extension of the imperialist aggression that has haunted Iraq since before the Revolution of 1958. The U.S. government plans to do the same as the French and British did back in the colonial days, to install a puppet regime and, if necessary, occupy the country to keep the people in line and keep capitalist interests protected. It's time for the people of the west to rise up in protest against imperialism! And for the people of Iraq to rise up against dictatorship! May Iraq finally taste democracy again.