Will Iraqi Communist Party Be Major Beneficiary When Carnage Ends?
The horrible thing about Iraq is that even if the US succeeds in stabilising the country, the resulting government may not be a great improvement.
Most commentators focus on the danger of pro-Iranian forces coming to the fore.
Equally to be feared is the likely influence of Iraq's increasingly powerful Communist Party.
Many Iraqi radicals opposed to militant Islam see their best hope in the Communist Party.
Are US soldiers dying for socialism in Iraq?
From the Communist Party USA's Peoples Weekly World
Some 10,000 Baghdad residents packed a sports stadium March 31 to celebrate the 73rd anniversary of the Iraqi Communist Party. It was the first mass event in Baghdad in years by any secular democratic group.
Similar events took place around the country. In Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, 2,000 overflowed a cultural center for a celebration featuring music, poetry and dance.
The response in Baghdad was so great that the party issued an apology to those who could not get into the filled stadium. The throng, including many families, children and youth, was mobilized on three days’ notice due to security precautions. The party, seasoned in organizing through decades of repression, distributed invitations carefully via e-mail, printed notices and word of mouth.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who heads one of the main Kurdish parties, and Speaker of Parliament Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, of the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front, sent representatives who read greetings. Representatives of a wide spectrum of political parties and civil society organizations also participated. Well-known poets and singers performed, including the head of the Iraqi Writers Union.
As crowds arrived outside the stadium, a jubilant atmosphere prevailed, with traffic policemen helping participants snap photos of each other. The event “had a tremendous uplifting impact on the political mood,” said ICP spokesman Salam Ali.
The huge turnouts in Baghdad and elsewhere point to a “change of mood among the people, especially the young, towards the Islamic parties,” Ali said. “People are just fed up” with sectarianism and violence. “The Communist Party appeals to people because it is not tainted with corruption and does not have blood on its hands from sectarian killings. People are seeing the party as hope, as a potential alternative, something different.”
Celebrations also took place in Najaf, Karbala, Nasiriya, Diwaniya, Omarah, Nineveh and Wasit provinces and elsewhere. At least 1,000 turned out in Alqosh, in the northern Nineveh plain near Mosul, a predominantly Christian Chaldean and Assyrian area.
The ICP’s Baghdad celebration received wide coverage in the Iraqi media. An Internet search found not one word about it in the U.S. corporate media.
Most commentators focus on the danger of pro-Iranian forces coming to the fore.
Equally to be feared is the likely influence of Iraq's increasingly powerful Communist Party.
Many Iraqi radicals opposed to militant Islam see their best hope in the Communist Party.
Are US soldiers dying for socialism in Iraq?
From the Communist Party USA's Peoples Weekly World
Some 10,000 Baghdad residents packed a sports stadium March 31 to celebrate the 73rd anniversary of the Iraqi Communist Party. It was the first mass event in Baghdad in years by any secular democratic group.
Similar events took place around the country. In Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, 2,000 overflowed a cultural center for a celebration featuring music, poetry and dance.
The response in Baghdad was so great that the party issued an apology to those who could not get into the filled stadium. The throng, including many families, children and youth, was mobilized on three days’ notice due to security precautions. The party, seasoned in organizing through decades of repression, distributed invitations carefully via e-mail, printed notices and word of mouth.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who heads one of the main Kurdish parties, and Speaker of Parliament Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, of the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front, sent representatives who read greetings. Representatives of a wide spectrum of political parties and civil society organizations also participated. Well-known poets and singers performed, including the head of the Iraqi Writers Union.
As crowds arrived outside the stadium, a jubilant atmosphere prevailed, with traffic policemen helping participants snap photos of each other. The event “had a tremendous uplifting impact on the political mood,” said ICP spokesman Salam Ali.
The huge turnouts in Baghdad and elsewhere point to a “change of mood among the people, especially the young, towards the Islamic parties,” Ali said. “People are just fed up” with sectarianism and violence. “The Communist Party appeals to people because it is not tainted with corruption and does not have blood on its hands from sectarian killings. People are seeing the party as hope, as a potential alternative, something different.”
Celebrations also took place in Najaf, Karbala, Nasiriya, Diwaniya, Omarah, Nineveh and Wasit provinces and elsewhere. At least 1,000 turned out in Alqosh, in the northern Nineveh plain near Mosul, a predominantly Christian Chaldean and Assyrian area.
The ICP’s Baghdad celebration received wide coverage in the Iraqi media. An Internet search found not one word about it in the U.S. corporate media.
posted by Trevor Loudon at
4/13/2007 10:36:00 AM
7 Comments:
It's evidence the surge is working Trevor. This is a very good ralley and a very hopeful sign.
I certainly hope you are right Bill, but will the succeeding government be dominated by radical Islamists and socialists?
I also get the feeling that Saddam Hussein, the late Iraqi dictator was part of the plan to place socialists and "Islamists" in power in the "new" Iraqi government as a way to trap the United States and allied forces.
So asks Trev: "Will the Iraqi Communist Party be the major beneficiary when the carnage ends ?"
Very possibly. What amazes me unceasingly is that you guys (Trev, Mah et al), albeit unwittingly, always ask the pertinent question at some point.
Never of course realising that the very asking shows the essential flaw in your own tiresomely reiterated so-called "argument".
The Chickenhawk has screwed up from the very start - remember the vaunted garlands of roses in the streets of Baghdad ? That semi-literate excuse for a man has delivered up to the Iraqis a fate far worse than Saddam ever did.
Then of course we must ask - might the consequence not be that the people embrace a less cruel fate - bloody vile communism ? Sort of like an aspirin, relatively ?
So who can we blame ? Your stunning perspicacity has it in one. The Chickenhawk ! And we can blame too those whom from their tatty NY lounge rooms unconditionally (for their singular madness) support that snotty little war criminal.
Call me a commie (which manifestly I am not) but who's done more than The Chickenhawk to throw Iraq into the arms of the very commies you so despise and revile ?
Funny how communism seems so often to be the natural answer to selfish, rich, thick, arrogant white men.
And Mah: thanks for your hot notion that Saddam was always a commie sleeper. You gotta get back to that shrink mate !
"The Chickenhawk has screwed up from the very start - remember the vaunted garlands of roses in the streets of Baghdad ? That semi-literate excuse for a man has delivered up to the Iraqis a fate far worse than Saddam ever did."
"So who can we blame ? Your stunning perspicacity has it in one. The Chickenhawk ! And we can blame too those whom from their tatty NY lounge rooms unconditionally (for their singular madness) support that snotty little war criminal."
Obviously "steve", there is something mentally wrong with you.
MAH debate the points-none of this 'something mentally wrong with you" crap please.
Sorry Trev, but when people like steve start jabbering about how Bush is a "war criminal" and all, that's where I draw the line.
I will no longer debate steve sort of attitude.
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