We know that the occupation hasn't brought freedom or security to the Iraqi people.
The Bush administration, the provisional authority and the client state have shared a common policy of destroying civil society and destroying inter-religious and non-religious organizations, particularly labor unions and opposition parties. This policy, and not Iraqi culture, is the cause of the sectarian violence.
Letter to the Anti-War and -Occupation Forces of the World
On the Fifth Anniversary of US Administration and its Allies' Barbarism
The memory of March 19th puts out terror in the world. On this day the
human race realizes that its destiny is in the hands of a bunch of
criminals and blood-suckers in the US Administration. March 19th is a
message to the world that freedom, civil rights and human dignity have
no value to the corporate mafia interests of the US and its allies in
the world.
After five years, the lies that were broadcasted by the Bush/Cheney
administration in waging its war and occupation of Iraq about WMD are
exposed. Saddam Hussein was not as dangerous to his neighbors as Iraq is
today, where threats to the region and the world are imminent. Today,
Iraq has become the largest base of exporting terrorism to the world and
a battleground for terrorist groups to settle their issues. What is even
worse is that the Iraqi model of sectarian conflict and the division of
people based on non-humane values has become a model for the regional
countries. In other words, Iraq is the draft model of the Greater Middle
East that is preached by Bush and Condoleezza Rice. Moreover, the flames
of sectarian conflict have begun to engulf Iraq's neighbors, where
groups with backward mentalities are taking advantage of the situation.
Approximately one million lives have been taken, more than 4 million
Iraqis have been displaced inside and abroad, unemployment rates are
more than 60%, extreme poverty has overwhelmed millions of children,
women and men. Moreover, the looting of billions of dollars of Iraqi
wealth is to be put in the pockets of Cheney's corporate friends and
sectarian militias....
The experience of five years of war, that is still raging, tells us that
the millions of people who took to the streets on the eve of war in
London, Rome, Paris, Madrid, Tokyo, New York, Toronto and Sydney...
failed to stop the bloodthirsty US administration from carrying out its
brutal agenda.
The weak point of our movement is that we demonstrate our power only in
reviving this painful anniversary once or twice a year at best, while
the US Administration displays its military machinery to kill people in
Iraq every day... It dictates new laws and concepts in the region and
the world. It supports sectarian groups (Shi'ite and Sunni political
Islamists) to preserve their interests... The US Ambassador Ryan Crocker
in Baghdad grants $5 million to a sectarian militias that kill people on
the basis of identity and kill women to force them to stay home every day.
Our anti-war movements, however, only raise the slogan "No to War" and
believe that this is sufficient. However, there is a developing movement
in Iraq that daily confronts the occupation, political Islam, terrorist
groups; and raises the slogans "No Shiite... No Sunni... Ours is a Human
Identity" and "No to the occupation; No to sectarian gangs." This
movement is part of the world anti-war movement that struggles every day
to expel the occupation and sweep out terrorist groups from Iraqi
society. This movement needs the support of the libertarian forces who
lead the world anti-war movement. The anti-war movement in Japan, with
MDS [Movement for Democratic Socialism] and ZENKO [National Assembly for
Peace & Democracy] at its forefront, has provided unlimited support to
the libertarian movement in Iraq, and has brought about a qualitative
change in its position. This model is capable to change the political
equation in Iraq and the region.
Without a libertarian and secular alternative in Iraq, the occupation
will not end. The defeat of the occupation by the progressive and
libertarian forces such as the Iraq Freedom Congress is the first step
to change the political map of the region and the world. The defeat of
the occupation by political Islam, whether bin Laden or the mullahs in
Iran, would only mean dumping the world into the largest vortex of chaos
and terrorism.
If the world anti-war movement wishes to end state terrorism, it has
only one choice -- which is doing just as the US Administration, Western
governments and Islamic groups are doing: supporting and funding their
allies in Iraq. In other words, supporting the libertarian movement in
Iraq is the only way for the peace movement to prevail, and the Iraq
Freedom Congress is at its forefront.
Our choice of founding Iraq Freedom Congress on March 19th [2005] was a
clear message to the world that we are determined to expel the
occupation and terrorist groups from Iraq, and work to form a secular
state and government that defines human beings on the basis of human
identity.
Samir Adil
President of Iraq Freedom Congress
March 18, 2008