For many weeks, the Govt. of India tossed around the proposal to send Indian troops to Iraq so that the US soldiers could be saved and we could take the brunt of Iraqi anger. This was the demand of the US Govt., to which Home Minister Advani virtually had bowed agreement during his trip to the US. He did not seem to have much idea of how Indians, with their heritage of anti-imperialist struggles, would react and how clear-headed would be the public reaction. Following a virtual outcry, a strong public opinion, all the opposition parties voiced their opposition. “Except under UN sanction” was the life-saver given by the Congress and some others. Eventually the Govt. began talking about doubts, about seeking clarifications, and finally the Cabinet decided against sending the troops “without explicit UN sanction and under UN command”.

At the ground level, this is not the sentiment. The strong sentiment among common people of India is that our troops should not be sent to maintain the rule of the American colonizers over Iraq. A lot of this conviction is due to the stubborn and persistent resistance being offered to the occupying armies by the Iraqis and the steady flow of body bags they are able to dispatch to the US. There is natural empathy countrywide with the people fighting for freedom of their country from the outrageous colonization by the US-UK forces and their blatant and fast exploitation of Iraq’s rich oil resources for their own ends. Side by side is the persistent exposure going on in the US-UK that WMDs were a baseless myth invented to justify the colonization of Iraq. The US people are waking up to facts now that the body bags are reaching – earlier they were firmly with their ‘patriotic war’. However, the process is also helping to expose worldwide the nature of the imperialist attack and take the wind out of US’s saintly postures against terrorism.

The US demand was clear-cut – Indian troops should go as a ‘stabilization force’. There was not even a cover of a ‘peace keeping’ one. It is unimaginable but true that the Indian Govt. should keep such a proposal dangling. Even when the Govt. finally turned down the idea, several English national dailies ran box items on how India would ‘lose’. It would apparently ‘lose’ construction contract doles, and the contracts for oil signed earlier with the Iraqi Govt. by ours would be cancelled if we refused to be the foot soldiers of US imperialism! There is much need to be really grateful for the impending elections in four states that it made the Govt. heed to public opinion. The domestic compulsion has mainly deterred the committed Govt. along with some opposition from its own sections.

The entire exercise shows that Indian rulers have learnt little or nothing from the experiences of acting as pawns of British colonialism during First World War. (Gandhi expressly recruited Indians for it.) Nor from the Srilanka experience where, as the IPKF, more Indian soldiers were killed than died in the Kargil war.

The fact is that the Iraqis are fighting a just war against an occupying army. All third world countries and people must extend solidarity to their brave defiance and their fight to liberate their country. Already they have slowed down the pace of US imperialism’s plans to intervene in more third world countries under the ‘anti-terrorism’ umbrella. Thus the fight of the people of Iraq is not only part of the anti-imperialist struggle of the world people but they are now fighting for all of us. The new Chief of US Forces in Iraq, Gen. John P. Abizaid (a Lebanese born American who speaks Arabic freely) has refuted Rumsfield’s contention and stated that the attacks on the US in Iraq are part of a “classical guerilla type campaign”. His predecessor had equally clearly stated in June that the war “was not over”. Reports are rampant of the dissatisfaction of the US 3rd Infantry which has been stationed longest in Iraq. No wonder. Taken with dreams of being welcomed as liberators and for a quick beating up of a terrorized land, they are learning what it means to be an occupying force among a hostile and patriotic people. The US army is now well stretched out. Of the 33 US combat brigades, 21 are under use. 16 of them are in Iraq, 2 in Afghanistan, 2 in South Korea and 1 in the Balkans.

After the Indian refusal, the US Administration is restless – probably they had taken acquiescence for granted. They initially ranted about the force of 20 countries which is stationed in Iraq, but later, more dangerously, began talking about going back to the UN to seek a “clearer UN mandate”. The UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, promptly responded that it could be seen to that the UN resolution could be “made clearer”. Russia has, as earlier, asked for a UN force to replace the US-UK armies. In Afghanistan, as in the earlier Iraq war, all imperialist forces had agreed to play “follow the leader” to the US, as there was a chance of sharing the loot. It is entirely possible that the same greed will now sanction a UN occupying force if the US is forced to climb down from its earlier position and offer a share in the spoils. Earlier the belligerent US was clear that the forces in Iraq would be under US-UK control.

What will be India’s position then? – if the face saver of a force under UN command is offered. Already the US has moved to set up a small puppet Iraqi Council full of its stooges (with some others co-opted) with the express purpose of sending it to the UN as a proof of ‘self rule’. It is a drama which Iraqi people are not accepting. They are condemning this US sponsored Council.

People of India must take the position that Indian troops should not be part of any occupying force going to Iraq. There are rich traditions of friendship between people of India and of Iraq. Indian Govt. must organize other third world countries to clearly demand at all international fora that not only should no new forces be sent from anywhere, rather the US-UK army should withdraw forthwith and leave Iraq to the Iraqi people. Simply placing a UN label does not stop the act from being one of continued and forcible violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.

In Delhi, the Party held a Dharna on 9th July demanding that Indian Govt. take a clear-cut position against sending troops to Iraq. A memorandum was also submitted to the Prime Minister on the occasion.