Vol. 72/No. 38      September 29, 2008

The reduction would bring the number of U.S. troops in Iraq below what it was before the 30,000 troop increase, dubbed the “surge,” began in January 2007. The reduction is based on the success of Washington’s offensive in establishing enough stability for its client regime to function in Baghdad. Al-Qaeda in Iraq has been greatly weakened and the Iraqi government forces substantially strengthened.

A number of Washington’s “coalition partners” are also withdrawing or reducing their troops.

Washington’s advances since early 2007 were made possible by help from wealthy Sunni forces around Baghdad and the western provinces that had previously been the backbone of support for Saddam Hussein’s regime. Following Hussein’s overthrow they financed and organized Sunni militias that fought U.S. and Iraqi government troops. These forces turned against al-Qaeda and allied themselves with the occupying army in reaction to chaos created by al-Qaeda’s methods of indiscriminate killing and extortion.

These Sunni-allied forces, known as the Awakening Councils, include nearly 100,000 combatants on the U.S. military payroll. More than half of these forces are expected to come under the administration of the Iraqi government October 1.

Al-Qaeda’s defeat in Anbar, once its major stronghold, was registered when the Iraqi government took responsibility for security in the province September 1. U.S. and Iraqi forces are moving to quell other areas where Sunni militias operate, including Diyala province, Baghdad, Basra, and Mosul.

Increasingly, the Iraqi military has been conducting operations in which U.S. forces play a support role. Early this year, operations led by Iraqi forces defeated the Shiite Mahdi Army militia in Basra, Baghdad, and al-Amarah. The militia’s head, Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, disbanded his Mahdi Army after Iraqi troops in May seized the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad from where the militia operated.

Washington and the Iraqi government are hammering out an agreement to provide a legal framework for a long-term presence of U.S. forces in the country.

About 90,000 civilian deaths at the hands of Washington’s soldiers, insurgent forces, and others have been reported since the war began.

At the same time, the imperialist occupation of Afghanistan has faced increased activity from Taliban and al-Qaeda forces there and in the border regions of Pakistan. In response, Washington has been carrying out what President Bush called a “quiet surge” in Afghanistan. The number of U.S. troops has increased from less than 21,000 to nearly 31,000 in two years, and the trained Afghan military and police forces more than doubled.

Nine other countries have also sent additional troops as part of the U.S.-led NATO operation there, bringing the total “coalition” troops from about 20,000 to 31,000. About two-thirds of U.S. forces in Afghanistan fight as part of the NATO operation; the rest are Special Forces under direct U.S. command.

Relations between Washington and the Pakistani government, its unstable ally in the “war on terror,” have been strained as the U.S. military has stepped up its operations on Pakistani soil. Islamabad has said U.S. operations inside Pakistan’s border are inciting deep resentment among the population and fomenting resistance.

Imperialist troops have killed thousands of civilians in Afghanistan, and many others in Pakistan since the Afghan war began in 2001. “Regrettably, there will be times when our pursuit of the enemy will result in accidental civilian deaths. This has been the case throughout the history of warfare,” Bush said September 9.
 
 
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