British forces attacked in Basra – another crack in the dam

After being labelled a “butcher” by
the British press following last week's bad election results for the
Labour Party and the subsequent Cabinet reshuffle, Tony Blair
suffered another blow. As if the recent scandals at home were not
enough, attention was drawn to that other hotbed of controversy,
Iraq. In Basra the British army lost five soldiers, including the
first female casualty, as their helicopter crashed and British
soldiers came under attack.

Helicopters have become the main means
of transport for British troops in Basra. More than ever the Lynx
helicopter is the loyal workhorse of the British army in Basra, where
they are based, as it is simply too dangerous to walk or drive
through the streets of the city without being threatened by lethal
roadside bombs. This fact in itself shows the volatility of the whole
situation in Iraq, expressed in the numerous bombings, killings and
explosions taking place on a daily basis all over the country. Now
not even helicopters are safe for the occupation forces. In the Daily
Mirror an intelligence official commented: “British troops are
now in a terrible position in the city as it is clear the public mood
is swinging towards wanting them to leave. Whereas troops were once
able to go out and take part in reconstruction schemes and meet
locals it is now extremely difficult for them to do so.” (Daily
Mirror, May 8)

When the helicopter went down on
Saturday – the official reason is not known yet, though police
claim it was taken down by a rocket fired from the ground – within
minutes British troops arrived on foot, accompanied by armoured
vehicles. They were not received as heroes, to say the least: the
welcoming present consisted of stones thrown from the crowd along
with petrol bombs. No less than 600 troops were needed to maintain a
cordon around the wreckage of the helicopter.

Sergeant Stuart Lansdowne testified to
the Reuters news agency how his men came under a hail of rocks,
Molotov cocktails, grenades and home-made bombs: "It was a
constant stream of about eight hours of folks being pummelled,"
he said. "We couldn't clearly identify where the bombs were
coming from, so we just stood and took it." And take it they did
indeed, but they were giving it too as army commanders had to
admit they fired into the crowd with both plastic and live bullets.
At least four Iraqis died during the event and more than forty were
wounded.

Basra residents said the euphoric
scenes following the helicopter crash are a direct result of the
city's descent into misery and that such a confrontation was likely
to recur. "The miserable situation in Basra and the south
definitely had a role in the build-up of events," said Abu Ali,
a Basra resident. "Electricity is absent for most of the day and
gasoline is very expensive. Ordinary people can never get a job at
the state security forces because it is entirely controlled by the
militias. People think those who used to live abroad came and
controlled everything while the common citizens still cannot get
basic life needs." (Guardian, May 8, 2006)

Despite the idle hope of Britain's new
Defence Secretary, Des Browne, who tried to reassure parliament that
Basra was not “rising up”, it does not take much intelligence to
see that it is precisely the deteriorating social conditions and
constant insecurity on all levels that are causing so much distress
amongst ordinary Basra citizens. Electricity is considered a luxury,
unemployment is at high levels, education is in shambles and access
to health care is scarce too. The Iraqi people may have suffered
under Saddam Hussein, but it is undeniable that they are worse off
now than before the invasion of their country – and that, at the
end of the day, is what determines their attitude towards a foreign
occupation force that, despite all the rhetoric, only aggravates the
situation.

The pompous words about “establishing
democracy” must sound very hollow to people who have seen very
little of this much trumpeted “democracy”. Yes, the people of
Basra, just like their fellow Iraqis, now have a President who wrote
an official letter to Tony Blair expressing his condolences, not for
his fellow countrymen who died in the skirmish, but for the British
soldiers in the helicopter – describing their deaths as a “vile
crime”. Surely this does not help the Iraqi people in their
day-to-day struggle for a normal life. Reuters quoted 23-year-old
university student Saeed Salman, who said, "The violence is
unacceptable, whether the downing of the helicopter or the reaction
of the British forces. We all want our city to be calm and free from
violence." Others, like Batul Abid al-Amir, 33, show a clearer
understanding of the real state of affairs: "What happened (on
Saturday), though we are against it, is predictable and natural,
because these forces are occupiers and they have to know that the
people are fed up with their presence in their country."

The recent clash comes after a year in
which the security situation in Basra gradually worsened. Once
considered one of the safest areas in Iraq, Basra is now just another
area of serious concern. Last September, British forces clashed with
Basra police who had detained two British secret service agents
dressed in Arab clothes and carrying explosives. To this day the
British government has not come up with any explanation of this
significant event, which can only be seen as a conscious provocation
coming from the murky world of the British intelligence services.

In
February of this year things came to a head as Britain started
arresting police they accused of having links to gangs and militias,
after which the local authorities in Basra broke off all relations
with the British forces. That same month footage of British soldiers
beating an Iraqi teenager was made public, which only alienated the
British forces even more from the local population.

As we wrote last year:

“If there ever
was any “love” on the part of the local population towards their
occupiers, by their own actions the British troops are quickly
destroying any credibility they might have had before. The myth of
peaceful British soldiers who are supposedly champions of
“peace-keeping” is gradually being destroyed. Insofar as this
myth had not already gone down the drain with their divide and rule
policy in Northern Ireland – and in fact in the whole history of
British imperialism, with its brutal colonial wars in Africa and the
Indian subcontinent – the real nature of the whole operation cannot
remain covered up.” (From
Tal Afar to Basra: fanning the flames of discontent in Iraq,
September 27, 2005)

The recent helicopter crash and the
violent protests are just another crack in the dam. It might take a
few more cracks, but it is inevitable that at one point the dam will
break.