wsws.org - 10 April, 2010
In the wake of the March 7 election in Iraq, the US administration and media hailed the ballot as evidence that the 2003 US invasion had, if belatedly, brought about democracy. A month later, bombs are tearing through the suburbs of Baghdad virtually on a daily basis and the new parliament is wracked by communal divisions. The claims of a new democratic beginning are another attempt to blind the American and international working class to the consequences of seven years of imperialist violence and intrigue against the Iraqi people.
A democratic election is not possible under a US occupation. The American military has suppressed every section of Iraqi society that resisted the country’s transformation into a client state. Tens of thousands of the most determined and vocal opponents of the occupation have been slaughtered or are rotting in prisons. The US invasion is directly responsible for the deaths of over 1.2 million Iraqi men, women and children and turning more than four million more into refugees or displaced persons.