April 09, 2003: The Fall of Baghdad was Decisive for the Outcome of the War

1. On the 21st day of the war tanks of the US invasion forces advanced towards the center of Baghdad without encountering considerable military resistance. They occupied the control centers of the Saddam Hussein regime. This was preceded by an incessant terror of missile and bomb attacks on the city ("Bombs hailed down"). By a well-aimed shelling from a tank reporters of Arabian TV channels and a member of the editorial staff of Reuters were killed. By means of bunker-breaking bombs leading government politicians as well as numerous inhabitants were killed in a new "strike to decapitate the leadership". In the meantime US tanks have moved into position on strategically important points and at Tahrir Place, the "heart of the city". With the flight of the government out of Baghdad the war has been strategically decided. In Baghdad law and order has broken down. The Saddam Hussein regime has actually been deprived of power.

2. In the meantime fighting is going on in Northern Iraq. Fierce battles are being waged for the control of the oil center Mossul and the home town of Saddam Hussein, Tirkit. The invasion forces have started to instal local authorities under British and US military command even without controlling the whole country. Iraq is being transformed into a US protectorate. The struggle between the big powers is focussing on the post-war order. The struggle for the redivision of Iraq and the Middle East will continue.

3. The war on Iraq has clearly demonstrated the strategic weakness of US imperialism. As aggressive superpower and world terrorist number one it is isolated worldwide. There has been an upswing in the active resistance in the states of the Gulf region, in the neocolonial dependent countries, but also in the imperialist core countries. In an organized active resistance the big cities, which according to a Pentagon survey "are the probable battlefield of the 21st century", can only be conquered with heavy losses. The invasion forces could to a great extent avoid this house-to-house fighting in Iraq. The active people's resistance can only prove to have a backbone if it pursues the perspective of a liberated society. The Iraqi people lacked this.

4. The Iraqi people is waging a courageous and just struggle against the military subjugation to the USA. Now the people are venting their justified hatred on the Saddam Hussein regime. However, the more US imperialism is resorting to the military subjugation of the dependent countries the more vulnerable it becomes. To defeat it it is necessary to coordinate and revolutionize the anti-imperialist struggle worldwide and advance the building of Marxist-Leninist parties.