The agreement between the two rival Shia clerics Sadr and Sistani, ending the siege of Najaf was a great victory for anti-occupation forces in Iraq. It sayeu many lives and boosted the morale and support of the resistance.
It forced the US to end its three-week long savage bombardment of the city, and thoroughly discredited the Alawi puppet government.
As in Fallujah the might of the US army inside Iraq, with its massive fire power, was brought to a stalemate by a guerrilla army.
But also like Fallujah, this is only a local deal. At least ten other towns were being targeted at the same time as Najaf, and attacks have continued since.
Hundreds of fighters and civilians alike are being killed and injured and many more are being rounded up in "clean-up' operations and thrown into detention camps all over Iraq
Under the agreement, Sadrist militias were to disarm and leave the Imam Ali shrine. US forces were to withdraw and hand control to the Iraqi police. Attention would then be focussed on preparing the country for future elections.
In reality, the militias have simply temporarily melted away into the population, like all guerrilla armies. The Americans have withdrawn some troops from some areas, but overall their presence remains.
As to the Iraqi police, they are divided into recruits from the old Baathist apparatus, together with many from the country's 70% unemployed. The former distinguish themselves by shooting unarmed demonstrators and manhandling journalists.
The latter however, frequently change sides when asked by the occupiers to repress their own people - as happened in Fallujah.
As to free and fair elections, they are, of course, essential for Iraqis to reclaim their own country. But many feel that the process of 'building democracy' whilst still under foreign occupation will result in a rigged façade.
The record of the invaders and their appointed quislings so far seems to bear this out. Thus, during the height of the recent bombardments and arrests, tomime was played out in Baghdad.
Behind the 15ft blast-proof ramparts, razor-wire and watchtowers of the US-constructed "Green Zone", a gathering of assorted puppets met to concoct an Interim Council' to rubber-stamp the decrees of the unelected Iraqi Interim Government.
There was only one US and government-approved slate of candidates. Nevertheless, this body is to oversee the path towards elections.
Our governments and media never tire of telling us that US and British troops, despite having invaded Iraq, killed up to 37,000 of its citizens and installed a puppet regime, must stay there to 'finish the job' of rebuilding the country they destroyed and introducing civil society and democracy.
Since the exposure of their lies about Iraqi WMD and links to al Qaida, this is increasingly put forward as the reason for going to war.
This of course is a thoroughly pernicious deceit. The Bush-Blair war, as we know, was fought to maintain US dominance and secure continued oil supplies from the
After the CIA-backed coup of 1963, Baathist Iraq was bolstered by the west throughout the next two decades of Saddam Hussein's rule.
To keep a 'balance of power amongst dictators the Iraqi leader was also encouraged and supported in his cruel and prolonged war against neighand continued survival to the presence of 170,000 occupation troops and tens of thousands of mercenaries. bouring Iran, from which Iraq emerged devastated.
Saddam Hussein subsequently tried to pay for reconstruction by engineering world oil-price rises and invading Kuwait's oil fields. In fact, this gave the West the immediate pretext for the 1991 Gulf War.
The punishing UN reparations and sanctions imposed on Iraq after its defeat is this war ensured it would never recover enough power or prosperity to upset the Middle East apple-cart again.
At the same time, selective sanctions-busting ensured that enough oil flowed out to sustain the repressive Baathist regime, and enough small arms flowed in to keep the lid on any popular dissent. This was the West's policy of containment.
However, the realisation that oil reserves might run out, together with the growth of internal oppositions within their client states began to change the West's policies. Saudi Arabia - with both the biggest reserves of oil in the world and the most repressive tyranny, was ripe for overthrow.
Heaven forbid that any popular movement might topple it and (a la Chavez) reduce oil supplies to the West, increase the price, and spend some of the revenues on the poor! Furthermore, that such an example might spread to the rest of the region!
Before any of this might happen, America once more invaded Iraq in March 2003. This was to install a safe puppet government to secure permanently the second largest oil reserves.
Which brings us back to present-day Iraq. It is clear that the IIG and its sham new "parliament' owe their very existence and continued survival to the presence of 170,000 occupation troops and tens of thousands of mercenaries.
These forces do not, as claimed, protect ordinary Iraqis: in fact most want them to leave. They are there to quell any opposition.
The news that the head of this puppet outfit, Ayad Alawi is allegedly a hands-on murderer (he is reported to have recently dispatched six 'uncooperative detainees with a handgun) comes as no surprise.
This former agent of the Muhabarat and CIA, is well schooled in this murky world of deceit, betrayall and thuggery and is busy recruiting amongst his old Baathist mates, who now work alongside thousands of foreign agents.
Further back-up comes from the legal black hole that has been created in Iraq. The horrors of Abu Ghraib exposed only the tip of the iceberg of a network of known and secret detention camps.
According to the Red Cross, the majority of detainees are completely innocent.
These are therefore principally interrogation centres to extract information about any opposition, often through use of torture. Should any inmates ever see a courtroom, they could now face the newly-introduced death penalty for 'threatening national security.
Another black hole appears to be a financial one. Of the $18.4bn promised by the
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