The Empire Strikes Out:

Canada's top war reporter, Scott Taylor has long experience covering conflicts in the Balkans and Iraq. His inside stories from the field have appeared often on Antiwar.com, as well as in Canadian newspapers and in his own monthly magazine, Esprit de Corps. The award-winning author is best-known for his Inat (about the Kosovo conflict) and Diary of an Uncivil War (on Macedonia's 2001 war). Taylor's latest book, Spinning on the Axis of Evil: America's War Against Iraq, is the cumulative result of more than a dozen visits to Iraq.

Just days before this new release, Scott was back in the thick of things in Iraq. The following testimony from his 15th trip to the country comes as a troubling reminder that the situation there remains dangerous and highly volatile.

The Latest

Chris Deliso: On this latest foray into Iraq, when did you arrive, where did you go and for how long?

Scott Taylor: I entered Northern Iraq on 22 November, spending seven days in the country, and managed to cover Zakho, Mosul, Erbil, Kirkuk, Tikrit, Baghdad and Fallujah. I must say that of all my trips into Iraq, this one was by far the most dangerous. The security situation has been steadily declining since the US occupation began seven months ago.

CD: To what degree are Iraqis enjoying a normal life? Are schools, public transport etc. running normally yet?

ST: The US propaganda machine has been trying to make a big deal over the fact that some Iraqi institutions have been successfully re-opened in recent weeks. However, the fact remains that the Americans have yet to provide anything close to a secure environment (even for their own troops). The basic utilities, such as electricity and phones remain worse than in pre-war times, and there is now something like eighty percent unemployment in Iraq, since the new US governing council's decision to disband the entire Iraqi bureaucracy as well as the army and police forces.

The other bizarre development is that without the refineries restored to full production and due to the tremendous fuel consumption of the occupying coalition forces, Iraq is now almost out of gas. Citizens have to wait up to four days in line to collect their ration allotment, which they then sell on the black market at one hundred percent markup to taxis and bus drivers who cannot afford to wait in queue. This has really restricted movement within Iraq for the average citizen.

'No Plausible Exit Strategy' for the Empire

CD: In the past, you have predicted a quagmire for the occupying US troops, one that would hasten the transfer of power to a UN force so as to lessen the bodybag syndrome for President Bush before the US presidential elections. From what you saw, is this happening as quickly as you had anticipated?

ST: At the moment, Bush and his administration 'heavies' (Powell, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz) are all making a tremendous effort to 'sell' the international community on committing more resources to the Iraq quagmire. I think the slogan could be best summed up as "anybody but Americans" should be added to the future casualty count.

Unfortunately for Bush and Company, the rest of the world is not so quick to jump on their bandwagon – and with good reason. In Iraq, there is no plausible exit strategy which does not involve additional violence.

CD: What about the ethnic and religious divides in the country? Have these been over-hyped, or do you still believe a civil war is possible?

ST: Anyone who can't foresee the potential for a civil war in Iraq is either willfully blind or a complete moron. Everywhere in the north, there are still the two private Kurdish peshmerga (militia) armies, as well as newly formed Turkmen, Arab and Christian militias. In the predominantly Shiite south, there are a number of armed factions, the most formidable being the estimated 5000-strong Al Badr Brigade.

The potential for inter-ethnic strife remains a serious concern, and at this point it would appear to be a matter more of determining "when" rather than "if" such a struggle will begin.

Trouble Ahead, Trouble Behind

CD: The White House has consistently said that worries over the security situation in Iraq are overblown, because the majority of attacks have been occurring within a relatively small and contained area of the country.

ST: The fact that the "Sunni Triangle" has been the central point of the resistance thus far is perhaps misleading Bush and his speechwriters a little. It is here that the Americans are actually confronting the resistance, whereas elsewhere they are simply turning a blind eye to the fact the local Iraqi leaders have no regard for the US appointed administration in Baghdad. I don't think that Donald Rumsfeld went to war in Iraq to create either an independent Kurdistan in the north, or a Shiite fundamentalist state in the south. At some point the US coalition will have to try to bring the various warlords and clerics to heel under one central authority, but this will not happen without additional violence.

CD: A recent report, quoting US military brass, stated that the arena of resistance is spreading east and west of the so-called 'Sunni Triangle.' Do you agree?

ST: US Intelligence officials in Kirkuk actually believe that the American military crackdown in the Sunni Triangle is forcing the resistance to seek softer targets further afield. However, the anti-American sentiment which is now prevalent all across Iraq has assisted the resistance fighters in finding new support bases. It was revealing to see the crowds on the streets of Mosul cheering and dragging bodies of American soldiers after they had been ambushed and killed. Mosul was considered to be relatively "safe" by US officials prior to last month's attack.

CD: The same report called Basra a "relatively pro-American city." Is this accurate?

ST: The people I interviewed before the war in Basra all expressed that they had no love for Saddam. However, they also had said that if the Americans came, they could topple Saddam, but then they must leave. As a predominantly fundamentalist Shiite region, they wish to establish their own separate state. And they know that this objective runs counter to the American ideal for a new Iraq.

Fallujah: Given Over to the Resistance

CD: What would you say is now the most dangerous place in Iraq?

ST: Without a doubt, the "hottest" spot in Iraq is the town of Fallujah, about one hundred kilometres from Baghdad.

For starters, no one warned us that the US forces have withdrawn from Fallujah. When journalists asked to be embedded with the 82nd Airborne there, the official response was that it was unsafe at the moment. The fact is that the resistance now completely controls Fallujah. The Americans have literally put a lock on the front gate of their Forward Operating Base Volturno, and bugged out. So we were driving around this city, noting the unfriendly faces as our driver-translator read out all the Arabic graffiti calling on the residents of Fallujah to "kill Americans" and "restore Saddam to power." Realizing that they probably wouldn't be able to discern between Americans and Canadians until it was too late, we got out quickly ourselves.

CD: So the resistance controls the city? Can you explain exactly who comprises the resistance? After all, the same government that downplays the attacks maintains that "Saddam loyalists" are behind them, or perhaps al Qaeda. What's the story?

ST: There are all sorts of different factions operating in Iraq right now. You have some sophisticated al Qaeda-type car bombings and assassinations being carried out, and then you have the low-level people's resistance such as the group in Fallujah.

However, scary as Fallujah was, my most dangerous experience was ironically enough a near-death experience with some terrified Yanks.

Friendly Fire Almost Takes Out Taylor

ST: We were heading south on the highway from Tikrit to Baghdad when we got stuck behind a slow-moving US convoy. Normally the Iraqis travel about 170 km per hour, but the US troops were doing just 40 km, and their armored Humvee escort made sure no one could pass on either side. With nothing else to do, and with my blood pressure boiling over, I had my driver pull up about 20 meters behind the American Hummer. I then put my camera out the window, so that the gunner would not mistake it for an RPG. I snapped a couple of photos, and the gunner dropped down inside his cupola to pass along the news to his driver.

Mistakenly, as it turned out, I assumed that all was well. Ten minutes later the Hummer braked to a sudden halt and two soldiers came running at our car screaming, "…where is the camera? Where is the f**king camera?" The one US soldier jammed the barrel of his pistol against my terrified driver's head, while an M16 was pointed into my face. All traffic had stopped, and other US soldiers had moved into position behind our car. The other Iraqis must have thought that the Yanks had found Saddam!

I was asked, "…why were you taking our photo?" and replied that I was a journalist. "Where is your ID?" screamed an obviously terrified sergeant. When I reached for my briefcase to get it, all I could hear was the clicking of rifles as they flipped the safety switches, and the gunner in the Hummer cocked his grenade launcher, which remained aimed at our windshield. "What the f**k are you doing?" screamed the sergeant again. I then asked how was I to get my credentials out without moving – and was told to keep my right hand in the air while I searched blindly with my left… no easy feat.

All this time, my petrified driver still had the loaded pistol pressed against his head. Only once my ID was finally found and the US sergeant satisfied did the Americans let down their guard. My driver slumped over the steering wheel crying tears of joy and praising Allah.

Update on Another Downturn in Morale

CD: In the past you have especially noted the poor morale of US soldiers on the ground. Is morale getting better or worse, in your opinion? And did Bush's much-hyped Thanksgiving visit raise spirits as much as the media said it did?

ST: Every American soldier would have known instantly that the Bush visit was a pile of stage-managed crap. At even the best protected US headquarters, the troops are required to take their weapons and webbing everywhere. You won't see them head to the toilet without a rifle. But at Bush's turkey slicing, there wasn't a weapon in sight. Obviously it would have sent a different message to the US public to see their soldiers hunkered down in fear as they are in reality. If Bush indeed was even really at the Baghdad airport, his plane must have departed a long time before they released the "live" footage of Bush's speech. (My Iraqi driver lives very near the airport).

For the average Iraqi citizen, the content of Bush's speech was very symbolic. "This means the US is now claiming to be still winning the war that it claimed to have won back in May" was how Lela Al Saadi (my driver's wife) summed it up.

CD: Did any soldiers comment specifically on Bush's visit?

ST: One comment that I got from a US soldier about Bush was in regards to the 21 November peace rally in London, England. "If I could have been there I would have helped pull down that (mock) statue myself," said Sergeant Nystrom, a 24 year-old serving with the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Kirkuk. It is interesting to note that every one of the dozens of US personnel I spoke with claimed they were going to get out of the Army as soon as possible. One female Military Policewoman even asked if Canada would accept AWOL US troops as "refugees" from the war.

…While the Homegrown Police Hope to Survive until their Next $54

CD: Now that Spanish, Italian, Japanese and other coalition countries are being targeted, are these troops starting to have misgivings about having joined up for America's war?

ST: I think that the targeting of the Spanish Intelligence operatives is probably the best example of the international coalition's collective resolve in this affair. At the outset, it was the Spanish, along with the US and UK that took the strongest stance for an armed intervention in Iraq. Although the Spanish did not contribute any combat troops for the actual fighting, they do now have a significant number of soldiers in the occupation force. However, even as their ten intelligence operatives were being mourned at a state funeral, the Spanish parliament was re-opening the debate on maintaining a continued presence in Iraq. In virtually all of the so-called "coalition" countries, there is tremendous public resentment towards the war, and each fresh casualty only intensifies the domestic political pressure.

CD: Did you get a chance to talk to any of the newly-trained Iraqi police or army staff? Do they have any confidence at all in the future of Paul Bremer's new Iraq?

ST: Those few Iraqi police that we managed to talk to were basically scared shitless, and any attempt to initiate a discussion on broad scale politics was pointless. They did not see themselves serving any greater purpose at the moment than surviving long enough to collect their next $54 monthly paycheck.

CD: The last month or so has seen increasingly high numbers of Iraqi civilian and police deaths as a result of terrorist attacks. Is this making the average Iraqi less sympathetic to the resistance fighters' cause?

ST: Actually, given the level of discontent among the average Iraqi, the resistance is taking on almost mythical qualities. They have certainly captured the imagination of most Iraqis, whereas those who have joined the US sponsored police are viewed as traitors.

Plugging the Axis

CD: Your new book, Spinning on the Axis of Evil: America's War Against Iraq, has just come out. Briefly, what is your main thesis, and what do you feel the average reader would find most interesting?

ST: I think the most informative thing about the book is that it provides a lot of background information and a continuous timeline. Most of the western media became interested in the Iraqi situation only when it became evident that war was unavoidable. Few of the major media outlets bothered to uncover the ravages of 12 years of economic sanctions and the deadly effects of long range exposure to depleted uranium. If more Americans were aware of the scale of genocide which US foreign policy had inflicted upon the people of Iraq, it would not have come as such a surprise that their soldiers have not been greeted as liberators.

Of course, the book is certainly not a promotion of Saddam Hussein's regime. Hell, his Mukhabarat (secret service) accused me of being a Mossad spy, and kicked me out of Baghdad on the eve of the war. However, it is important to know that the US also had a lot of blood on their hands in this whole affair. While Bush, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld all predicted a virtually bloodless intervention and a hasty withdrawal of coalition forces, the Iraqi people themselves were not so naive. They had accurately predicted, and feared, the post-war violence and anti-US resistance.

As a selling point, I should point out that this book is also written in the first person. There are a lot of little adventure stories to keep a reader's interest: Trekking about Saddam's Iraq with an alcoholic driver and no official permission, running afoul of trigger-happy American soldiers, being detailed by nervous Iraqi conscripts with guns cocked and loaded, and an attempt to cross a border minefield at night. It's all in there.

Scott Taylor Reports From Iraq