Iraq election sets stage for escalating political turmoil

[Euphen]

Iraq election sets stage for escalating political turmoil
By James Cogan
5 February 2005

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The voting patterns last Sunday can only be understood in the context of this complex history. The election was not an endorsement of the US invasion and occupation. It was above all a reflection of the confused but deeply-held aspirations of ordinary Iraqis for lasting social change and an end to decades of political repression.

The parties making up the Shia List, along with Sistani, promoted the illusion that the election would be the means both for bringing a quick end to the American military presence in Iraq and for creating a government that will be attentive to the outstanding social needs of the millions of Shiite working class and rural poor.

Similarly, the Kurdish bourgeois parties campaigned on the basis that the reorganisation of Iraq under the US occupation will lead to an autonomous or fully independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq that would ensure the Kurds never again suffer persecution. Moreover, by establishing control of Iraq’s northern oilfields around the city of Kirkuk, it would deliver improved living standards.

Conflicts inevitable

None of these promises can or will be delivered. The illegal invasion in 2003 was not launched by the Bush administration to end the oppression of Iraqi Shiites, Kurds or anyone else. The objectives of the war were and remain to transform the country into a US client state in the Middle East and turn over its energy resources to US-based oil conglomerates. To achieve its ends Washington is prepared to offer minor concessions to factions of the Iraqi ruling class, but it will not accept any demands that conflict with its geopolitical and economic ambitions in the region.

The electoral success of the Shiite and Kurdish parties has therefore placed them on a collision course both with US imperialism and with the very layers who voted for them. They will only retain US backing to the extent they carry out Washington’s dictates, and in doing so, will be increasingly exposed in the eyes of those who voted for them.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2005/feb2005/iraq-f05.shtml