Naomi Klein (Guardian Utd): Terror as a weapon of occupation

[Jack Rabbit]

From the Guardian Unlimited (UK)
Dated Wednesday March 24

Terror as a weapon of occupation
By Naomi Klein in Baghdad

In London, they unfurled a protest sign on Big Ben, in Rome a million demonstrators filled the streets. Here in Iraq, there were no such spectacular markings of the one-year anniversary of the invasion - a sign, the BBC speculated, that Iraqis are generally "pleased" with the progress of their liberation.
Yet driving around Baghdad on Saturday, the eerie quiet felt more like a sign that symbolic anniversaries are an unaffordable luxury when the war they are supposed to be marking is still being waged. Several demos were planned for Saturday in Baghdad but cancelled at the last minute - a response to three days of rapid-fire attacks on Iraqi and foreign civilians.
On Friday, an anti-occupation march designed as a show of unity between Sunni and Shia Muslims was much smaller than organisers hoped, and no wonder: less than three weeks ago, 70 people were killed in an horrific attack on the same Shia mosque where demonstrators were meant to gather. US occupation chief Paul Bremer chose the day of the planned protests to predict that more such "major attacks" were likely "when you have masses of Shia together". Those who dared to show up glanced around nervously, while armed men lined the streets and rooftops.
Just two months ago, the mood here was distinctly less tentative. In January, more than 100,000 Iraqis took to the streets of Baghdad and Basra to reject the US plan to appoint an interim government through a complicated system of regional caucuses, and to demand direct elections. Under intense pressure, Bremer was forced to scrap the caucus plan. For a brief moment, it looked as if Bush's empty talk of bringing democracy to Iraq might just become a reality - because Iraqis seemed determined to seize that power despite their occupiers' best efforts.

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