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Battles Rage Across Iraq As U.S. Comes Face To Face With
a Unified Armed Resistance
The Roots of Resistance: Why The U.S. Faces a Joint Shia,
Sunni Uprising in Iraq
The Other War: Pentagon's Own Report On Afghanistan Invasion
Blasts U.S. War Strategy
Witnesses: U.S. Special Forces Trained and Armed Haitian
Anti-Aristide Paramilitaries in D.R.
Battles Rage Across Iraq As U.S. Comes Face To Face
With a Unified Armed Resistance
Resistance to the U.S. occupation in Iraq intensified for
a fourth day in cities and town across Iraq bringing the death
toll to at least 20 U.S. soldiers and over 150 Iraqis. Hundreds
more have been wounded. We go to Iraq to get a report from
the ground form Aaron Glantz of Free Speech Radio News and
Pratap Chatterjee of CorpWatch.org. Resistance to the U.S.
occupation in Iraq has intensified for a fourth day. On Tuesday
12 U.S. soldiers died in a firefight near Ramadi bringing
the US death toll in the last few days to at least 20. Over
150 Iraqis have been killed including 26 in Fallujah where
US warplanes bombed a residential Sunni area. 16 children
and eight women were killed in that attack.
Followers of the young Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr continued
their uprising by effectively taken control of Najaf, the
Shiite holy city of 500,000.
Fighting against US troops also occurred in Baghdad, Basra,
Amarah, Nasiriyah, Karbala and Kut.
A nightmare situation for the US is beginning to emerge with
Sunni and Shiite Muslims joining together for the first time
to oppose the US occupation. One 30-year-old Sunni merchant
in Adhamiya told reporters, "This is now jihad against
the Americans regardless of whether we are Shiites or Sunnis."
UPI is reporting a leading Sunni sheik has sent the Shiite
leader Sadr a letter offering his army to fight the Americans.
The sheik Harrath Selman al-Tey wrote, "There is no
more Shiite and Sunni, only Muslims and now we will fight
each other no more and together fight the same enemy."
The Financial Times is reporting the fighting in Iraq now
resembles a Palestinian-style Intifada.
The US suffered its biggest military setback of the year
Tuesday in the city of Ramadi, west of Fallujah. The attack
was carried out not by Shiite supporters of Sadr but dozens
of Sunni fighters who raided a US base at the governor's palace.
They were armed with RPGs and automatic weapons.
The fighting was so intense, Sky News of London at one point
reported 130 US Marines might been killed but all subsequent
accounts put the death toll at about 12.
The US fought back as warplanes fired at homes in Ramadi
while troops fought block by block on the ground. Fighting
has continued into today.
One GI told the Washington Post, "It seemed like everyone
in the city who had a gun was out there."
In Fallajah, U.S. forces called out a weapon rarely used
against the Iraqi guerrillas: the AC-130 gunship, a warplane
that circles over a target, laying down a devastating barrage
of heavy machine gun fire. U.S. forces killed at least 60
Iraqis in Fallajah and destroyed four houses.
In Kadhimiya Shiite Iraqis killed three U.S. soldiers.
The US military today vowed to "destroy" Sadr's
militia known as the Mehdi Army. But Sadr vowed to die fighting.
He said, "America has shown its evil intentions, and
the proud Iraqi people cannot accept it. They must defend
their rights by any means they see fit."
And the Bush administration went on the offensive in dealing
with the crisis. Paul Bremer, the head of the US occupation,
and Secretary of State Colin Powell blasted Senator Ted Kennedy
for claiming Iraq had become George Bush's Vietnam. Bremer
said, "There is nothing in common with Vietnam."
President Bush downplayed the resistance as being carried
out by "thugs and terrorists" who don't have values.
The Bush administration also continued to maintain that power
would be handed over to Iraq on June 30.
But Senator John Kerry said he is concerned Bush is pushing
for the transfer of power solely for political reasons.
Kerry told reporters "I think they wanted to get the
troops out, get the transfer out of the way as fast as possible
without regard to the stability of Iraq. It is a mistake to
set an arbitrary date and I hope that date has nothing to
do with the elections here in the United States."
Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska said the US was
"dangerously close" to losing control in Iraq.
The Washington Post quotes a senior US official involved
in Iraq policy saying, "We've reached a moment of truth
here with both Fallujah and Sadr. We have to get both right
or there are serious questions about whether this political
transition can go forward."
The former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said Iraq
was better off under Saddam Hussein."
Blix told a Danish newspaper, "What's positive is that
Saddam and his bloody regime is gone, but when figuring out
the score, the negatives weigh more... The war has liberated
the Iraqis from Saddam, but the costs have been too great."
- Pratap Chatterjee, managing director of CorpWatch.org.
Speaking from Baghdad.
The Roots of Resistance: Why The U.S. Faces a Joint
Shia, Sunni Uprising in Iraq
A nightmare situation for the U.S. is beginning to emerge
with Sunni and Shiite Muslims joining together for the first
time to oppose the US occupation. We speak with author and
Voices in the Wilderness founder Milan Rai about the causes
for armed resistance from both Sunni and Shia Iraqis across
the country.
- Milan Rai, author of Regime Unchanged and "War Plan
Iraq" and one of the founders of Voices in the Wilderness,
UK. He joins us on the phone today from Hastings, England.
The Other War: Pentagon's Own Report On Afghanistan
Invasion Blasts U.S. War Strategy
A report commissioned by the Pentagon on the invasion of
Afghanistan was turned away after it concluded there was a
wide gap between how the White House represented the war and
what was actually taking place. We speak with the New Yorker's
Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh who says,
"It's a great trifecta for this administration. In three-and-a-half
years of office, we have destroyed Afghanistan, destroyed
Iraq and we are in the process of destroying the UN too."
As the nation and the world focus attention on the increasing
violence and turmoil in Iraq - few are noticing the plight
of the other nation invaded by the U.S. in the last two and
a half years - Afghanistan.
The Bush administration has consistently labeled the invasion
of Kabul a success. But reports from humanitarian organizations,
United Nations officials and Afghanis themselves paint a very
different picture - warlords dominate much of the country,
the Taliban is still a force in many parts, and the illegal
drug trade is flourishing.
But the latest criticism of the conflict comes from within
the Pentagon itself.
In late 2002, the Pentagon commissioned a report from a retired
colonel and leading military expert in unconventional warfare
to examine the invasion of Afghanistan.
Retired Army Colonel Hy Rothstein, who served in the Army
Special Forces for more than 20 years concluded the US failed
to adapt to new conditions created by the Taliban's collapse
and created conditions that have given "warlordism, banditry
and opium production a new lease on life." This according
to the New Yorker magazine.
After Rothstein submitted the report in January, the Pentagon
returned it with a request he cut it drastically and soften
his conclusions. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Joseph
Collins said of the report "There may be a kernel of
truth in there, but our experts found the study rambling and
not terribly informative."
Rothstein wrote that the war "effectively destroyed
the Taliban but has been significantly less successful at
being able to achieve the primary policy goal of ensuring
that al Qaeda could no longer operate in Afghanistan."
Witnesses: U.S. Special Forces Trained and Armed
Haitian Anti-Aristide Paramilitaries in D.R.
As Colin Powell returns from his one-day visit to Haiti,
we speak with criminal justice professor Dr. Luis Barrios
about his trip to the Dominican Republic where he says lawyers,
journalists, and Dominican soldiers all claim 200 U.S. Special
Forces were in the country to train the so-called Haitian
rebel forces before going into Haiti to depose Aristide. Secretary
of State Colin Powell rejected calls Monday by Caribbean nations
for a United Nations inquiry into the ouster of Haitian President
Jean Bertrand Aristide.
Aristide has maintained he was overthrown in a U.S.-led coup
when he was flown to the Central African Republic at the end
of February.
Powell, who traveled to Haiti to meet with the new U.S.-installed
government, said, "I don't think any purpose would be
served by such an inquiry. Haiti was on the verge of a total
security collapse."
Powell's one-day mission to Haiti today is the first such
visit by a U.S. secretary of state since Madeleine Albright
went to Haiti in 1998.
Human Rights Watch said Powell should press the interim Haitian
government to pursue justice for abusive rebel leaders as
well as members of the deposed government.
Haitian justice officials have promised to prosecute abusive
former members of the government of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, but have showed little interest in pursuing abusive
leaders of the rebel forces.
Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's interior minister
was arrested and charged Tuesday with conspiring to kill Aristide
opponents in February.
In contrast, last week Justice Minister Bernard Gousse raised
the possibility of pardoning Jean Tatoune, a gang leader who
was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2000 for his role in
a 1994 Raboteau massacre.
- Dr. Luis Barrios, professor of criminal justice at John
Jay College in New York City. He is also a prominent community
leader in New York's Puerto Rican and Dominican communities
as well as a priest in the Episcopal Church. He recently
returned from the Dominican Republic.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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