While public support in the US for Washington聮s counterinsurgency war in Iraq has collapsed, the Pentagon has drawn up plans to almost double the number of US combat troops deployed in the oil-rich country by the end of this year.
Iraq
On May 18 the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) expressed its support for Iraqi railways workers, who on May 15 began an indefinite strike to win a pay rise and basic rights. The strike action, backed by the vast majority of rail workers, paralysed the country聮s main north/south rail corridor. Workers wanted improvements in salaries and conditions, as well as improved safety, protection from attack and fundamental workers聮 rights. The ITF聮s Mac Urata commented: 聯It beggars belief that the dictatorial anti-union laws of the Saddam Hussein era are still in place. Legislation denying rail and other public services workers the right to strike and belong to a union must be removed immediately. The ITF fully supports this legitimate action.聰
鈥淭he US military surge in Iraq, designed to turn around the course of the war, appears to be failing as senior US officers admit they need yet more troops and new figures show a sharp increase in the victims of death squads in Baghdad鈥, the May 13 London Observer reported.
A roadside bomb damaged an Australian military vehicle on patrol in southern Iraq鈥檚 Dhi Qar province on May 13, according to the Australian defence department. It was the second reported attack on Australian troops in Iraq this month.
Iraq's 28,000 oil workers are due to stop work on May 14 to protest against a draft oil law that would pave the way for Iraq's nationalised oil industry to be taken over by US and British oil corporations.
聯At least 104 US soldiers died in Iraq in April, capping the deadliest six-month period for US forces since the war began more than four years ago聰, the May 1 Sydney Morning Herald reported, adding that April was 聯the deadliest month so far this year and the sixth deadliest of the war. It also brought to five the number of consecutive months when the American death toll has surpassed 80, the longest such stretch of the war.聰
The six cabinet members loyal to Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr quit the 37-member cabinet of US-backed Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki on April 16. The Sadrists had headed the ministries of agriculture, health, tourism and transportation.
Four years ago, I walked through Melbourne聮s CBD holding a placard that read: 聯No blood for oil聰. I was an idealistic university student, intent on letting my government know that it聮s not okay to launch an invasion in pursuit of so-called 聯black gold聰 in a country that was no threat to mine.
聯Wrapped in the Iraqi flag and chanting anti-American slogans, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shia snaked into the holy city of Najaf yesterday for a protest rally to mark the fourth anniversary of the toppling of Saddam Hussein and to demand the ejection from Iraq of US and British troops聰, the April 10 British Guardian reported.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the departing US ambassador to Iraq, told journalists in Baghdad on March 26 that US embassy and military officials had met several times with representatives of Iraqi groups that have ties to the anti-occupation resistance movement.
On the eve of the fourth anniversary of the US-British-Australian invasion of oil-rich Iraq, the American Broadcasting Corporation released the results of a survey showing that 78% of Iraqis oppose the continuing presence of US and allied foreign troops in their country.
The March 1 British Guardian reported that an 聯elite team of officers advising the US commander, General David Petraeus, in Baghdad has concluded that they have six months to win the war in Iraq 聴 or face a Vietnam-style collapse in political and public support that could force the military into a hasty retreat聰.
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