Jan 06・13, 2012  No.1214

【MDS Statement on the U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq and  the dissolution of IFC】

On December 14th, U.S. president Barack Obama declared the Iraq war over and on December 18th, all the U.S. occupying forces completed the exit from Iraq. This marks the end of the occupation of Iraq by the U.S. military that has continued for eight years and nine months since 2003.

This is a gigantic victory for the people of Iraq as well as for the anti-war movements around the world.

The people of Iraq developed a strong civil resistance movement. The U.S. anti-war movement has organized Iraq war veterans who formed Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and have resolutely struggled to establish the government's responsibilities. Moreover, the democratic revolutions sweeping North Africa and the Middle East have frustrated the U.S. strategy in the Middle East. The global anti-war movements have tried to hold accountable those governments that promoted the war. Vast military expenditures have pushed the U.S. government to the brink of bankruptcy, preventing it from continuing the occupation of Iraq. All these forces combined have brought about the U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq.

The U.S. leaves Iraq without achieving its original intention, to maintain permanent military bases in Iraq for the purpose of monopolizing Iraqi oil resources. The U.S. ruling class admits its defeat, too, as is seen in the remark made by Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House of Representatives, that ‘We will leave in defeat.’

This U.S. military withdrawal means the defeat of the most bellicose circle amongst global capitalists. Namely, we have won the great step forward to completely confining the war system of global capitalism.

In response to the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC) has decided on the dissolution of its organization based on the judgment that it has achieved one of its main objectives of realizing the withdrawal of all the occupying forces from Iraq. IFC has announced at the same time its lines of actions that ‘the revolutionary movement in Iraq will continue its struggles in a different and new organizational as well as political framework. It will be a framework that will correspond to the new phase of the post-occupation Iraq where we have witnessed the dawn of people's uprisings against sectarianism, poverty and corruption since February 25, 2011, and to the new era of the world where we are witnessing the great revolutionary movement against tyranny, hunger and unemployment.’

We welcome this decision. Let us take this opportunity to express our deep condolences to the people of Iraq and our IFC comrades who fell in the process of their struggles to end the occupation. We also express our determination to fulfill, till the end, the responsibilities of the Japanese anti-war movement in setting up the Iraq War Inquiry Committee to hold the Japanese government accountable for the role it played in carrying out the war. We will also continue to struggle to prevent the Japanese global capitalists from looting Iraqi oil resources.

At the same time we express that we will struggle in solidarity with the organization to be formed to counter sectarianism, poverty and corruption, in order to abolish the domination by the global capitalism and to build democratic socialism.

The time has come when we enter upon our struggles to abolish global capitalism in solidarity with the global ‘Occupy’ movements and the democratic revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East.

MDS Central Committee
December 25th, 2011
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