[nasional_list] [ppiindia] Why the Iraqi quagmire is no Vietnam
- From: "Ambon" <sea@xxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2005 01:42:26 +0100
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**http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GK12Ak01.html
Why the Iraqi quagmire is no Vietnam
By Aaron Glantz
HANOI - Is Iraq another Vietnam? Tran Dac Loi should know. The secretary
general of the Vietnam Peace and Development Foundation grew up in Hanoi
dodging bombs dropped by the United States Air Force, while his father fought
in the successful guerrilla war in the country's Central Highlands.
Three decades later, Tran, now an important figure in the ideological wing of
Vietnam's communist government, has some thoughts on the Iraqi resistance.
"Our struggle was well organized," Tran said in an IPS interview. "We had an
address and official contacts, but with Iraq you never know who the resistance
is and what their objectives are."
Pointing to what he sees as a serious flaw in the Iraqi resistance, he added,
"Sure, the fighters all want the Americans out, but there's no unifying
political program."
In Iraq, the insurgency's appeal flows primarily from the pain of the
occupation. Much of its support comes from regular Iraqis who have relatives
who have been killed or imprisoned by US forces and they want to get even.
"This kind of resistance leads nowhere," Tran said. "Resistance has to have a
clear objective. Ours was independence and socialism; not reaction but
revolution."
Some of the occupation's opponents in Iraq do have developed organizations,
complete with spokespersons and ideological programs. But, Tran predicts,
because the insurgency is built on ethnic and religious lines, they'll never
succeed in their objectives.
The movement of Muqtada al-Sadr, for example, appeals primarily to poor people
in the country's numerous Shi'ite slums. It provides services in poor Shi'ite
neighborhoods, while advocating an Islamic state. Such a plan of action has
helped Muqtada amass millions of supporters, but prevents him from attracting a
following outside his core base.
According to Tran, the same can be said of Sunni fundamentalists. The hardline
Association of Muslim Scholars may have spokespersons who appear regularly on
the Arab satellite channels, but their appeal is limited even within the
country.
Tran thinks that the lack of a pan-ethnic political program can cause minority
groups to ally with the occupier in order to ensure that their cultural rights
are protected. In Iraq, this has caused the Kurds, and their more than 100,000
guerrillas, to side with the US.
"The absence of a clear political program is in the interest of the US," Tran
said. "Then, they [the US] can go above you and pretend like they're solving
the problems between you, when really they're lording over you."
While the occupying forces took care to ban the secularist Ba'ath Party - which
continues to function through independent cells within Iraq and through exiles
in Syria and Jordan - the party has not been able to earn the trust of minority
groups.
It is a classic case of divide and rule. Indeed, from the start of the
occupation, the US government actively encouraged the Iraqi people to organize
themselves along sectarian lines. The US administration even hired a company,
Research Triangle Institute (RTI), and charged it with selecting local
governments based solely on the ethnic make-up in each of Iraq's regions. In
March 2003, RTI was awarded a contract worth US$466 million to create 180 local
and provincial governments in Iraq and obtain wide public participation in a
new political process, but government auditors pointed out irregularities.
Tran suggested that what would work in Iraq would be a program similar to
Vietnam's revolution, which was based on a single political party, aimed at
throwing out the aggressor and defending the unity of the country as well as
its economic and political sovereignty.
The particular ideology, he said, is not the key. More important is something
everyone can believe in, regardless of religion or ethnic background. Iraq, he
said, needs a unifying political figure such as Ho Chi Minh. "You need a
political figure who can introduce a long-term objective that's in the basic
interest of the majority of the people."
Tran doesn't think any of Iraq's current crop of political leaders fits this
mold. Moreover, he said the fighters' regular killing of civilians is sickening
and counterproductive. "They behave more like random rebelling groups," he
said. "When we fought, we only fought against the ones who fought us. Civilians
were never our targets."
Given the Iraqi resistance's bloody tactics and lack of a unified political
program, Tran doubts it will be successful in forcing the Americans out - at
least in the short term.
He compares the Iraqi resistance to the many aborted attempts to end French
colonization of Vietnam before World War II, which were led by small groups of
the educated elite. "They were all patriots but they were all suppressed
because they could not appeal to the masses."
Aaron Glantz is author of the book, How America Lost Iraq(Tarcher/Penguin).
Ngoc Nguyen also contributed to this report.
(Inter Press Service)
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