IRAQ: Gripped by an uprising the US can't defeat
by Rohan Pearce

This situation in Najaf has made it clear that "post-handover" Iraq is still a US-occupied country. The Pentagon’s attempts to re-label the resistance as "anti-Iraqi forces" from "Saddam loyalists" can’t disguise the reality of Shiite and Sunni Iraqis rising up against the US all over the country.

The US response — using AC-130 gunships, Apache attack helicopters and 500-pound-bomb-bearing fighter jets — has done irreparable damage to the image of its puppet government, the Interim Government of Iraq (IGI). This is particularly true of its assault on the resistance forces in the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf.

As Iraqi Democrats Against Occupation put it on August 20, "Whatever is the outcome of the US assault on the holy city of Najaf, their aggression cannot hide the fact that the US is losing control of large areas in Iraq; it is an act of desperation. The unity of the Iraqi people against occupation and their determination to achieve independence and democracy is strengthened."

Full story here.