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Imperialism is Rebuilding Iraq as a Graveyard

Marxist Theory · 2026-05-13

Core Argument

The article argues that the US-led occupation of Iraq has not been a flawed attempt at democratisation but a catastrophic imperialist project that has systematically destroyed Iraqi society. Its central claim is that the occupation has produced mass death, infrastructural collapse, and sectarian civil war — not despite the intentions of the imperialist powers, but as the logical outcome of a war fought for raw materials, markets, and spheres of influence. The mounting talk of "exit strategies" is not a sign of imperialist conscience but of a ruling class concerned with electoral defeat, spiralling costs, and regional destabilisation. The only genuine solution, the article insists, is the immediate withdrawal of all imperialist troops and the building of a socialist alternative.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis is rooted in the classical Marxist theory of imperialism as developed by Lenin and Bukharin. Wars are understood not as aberrations or mistakes but as expressions of the competitive logic of capital on a world scale — fought for "raw materials, markets, and spheres of influence." The article draws on the Leninist distinction between the interests of the capitalist state and the interests of the working class, and it applies the Marxist method of "unmasking" bourgeois ideology: the rhetoric of "democracy" and "liberation" is shown to be a cover for the brutal realities of occupation, torture, and mass death.

The article also sits within the Trotskyist tradition's insistence on revolutionary defeatism — the demand that the working class turn its guns against its own ruling class rather than support "our" imperialists against "theirs." The call for immediate withdrawal, without conditions or UN "peacekeeping" fig leaves, reflects this tradition's rejection of any form of imperialist "lesser evilism."

Conjunctural Relevance

The article was published in November 2006, a moment when the Iraq War had become deeply unpopular in the United States and Britain. Key conjunctural details include:

  • The Lancet study estimating 655,000 excess Iraqi deaths — a figure the article uses to expose the scale of the catastrophe.
  • The impending US congressional elections, which the article identifies as the real driver of Bush's search for an "exit strategy."
  • James Baker's Iraq Study Group, then preparing recommendations for a phased withdrawal and potential engagement with Syria and Iran.
  • Elliot Cohen's Wall Street Journal article openly advocating a military coup as a "Plan B."
  • Sir Richard Dannatt's public call for British withdrawal from Iraq, which the article notes is not a principled anti-war position but a tactical shift toward "winning" in Afghanistan.

The article also anticipates the sectarian partition of Iraq — the "three state solution" — which would become the de facto outcome of US policy in subsequent years.

Where the Argument Continues

This article is part of a sustained body of IDOM analysis on Iraq published between 2005 and 2008. The argument is developed in several directions:

  • The Haditha massacre (June 2006) and US-style democracy in Iraq (November 2005) provide detailed evidence of the brutality the article summarises.
  • Opening the Gates of Hell (March 2006) and Three years of imperialist occupation (March 2006) offer a broader historical sweep, tracing the descent from invasion to civil war.
  • British forces attacked in Basra (May 2006) examines the specific dynamics of the British occupation in southern Iraq and the growing resistance.
  • The New Iraq Constitution (October 2005) analyses the formal political framework the occupation imposed, exposing it as a cover for sectarian division and privatisation.

The broader theoretical argument about the relationship between imperialism, war, and capitalist crisis is developed in IDOM articles on the "war on terror" and in the Marxist classics — Lenin's Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism and Trotsky's The War and the International.

Connections

  • Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism — the theoretical foundation for understanding the economic drivers of the Iraq War.
  • Trotsky, The War and the International — the classic statement of revolutionary defeatism, directly applicable to the article's call for withdrawal.
  • Bukharin, Imperialism and World Economy — on the competitive logic of capitalist states.
  • IDOM, The War in Iraq – Two years on (March 2005) — an earlier assessment that sets the stage for the 2006 analysis.
  • IDOM, From Tal Afar to Basra (September 2005) — on the specific dynamics of sectarian violence and imperialist "divide and rule."

Key Quotes

  1. "From their point of view wars are fought for raw materials, markets, and spheres of influence. None of these have been secured, although the arms manufacturers, the construction companies, and the finance houses busily privatizing Iraq have certainly made a killing."

  2. "The staggering estimate of The Lancet that 655,000 Iraqis (about one in forty of Iraq's civilian population) have died as a result of the occupation reveals the true result of Bush and Blair's regime change — the wholesale slaughter of men, women and children; the destruction of the country's infrastructure; and descent into sectarian civil war."

  3. "Masked by the word federalism what this really means is partition and ethnic cleansing. This is their so-called 'three state solution'."

  4. "To the imperialists the Iraqis do not count as human beings when they are alive (as amply demonstrated by the torture at Abu Ghraib and the massacre of Fallujah), they certainly do not bother to count them when they are dead."

  5. "The 'war on terror' is a useful cover behind which to conduct a war on the working class and basic democratic rights, but the imperialists' actions do nothing to combat terrorism, on the contrary, they breed it."

  6. "There is only one 'exit strategy' required. All imperialist troops should get out of Iraq now! No solution can be imposed on Iraq by US, British, UN, or other coalition forces. The future of Iraq must be decided by the Iraqi people."