Zoltan Grossman is a professor at Evergreen State College near Olympia. He was a driving force for the citizens hearing on the Iraq war held in Tacoma around the Watada case. Portion of his article from Counterpunch is below; whole article is here: http://www.counterpunch.org/grossman09192007.html
"Most Iraqis have wanted U.S. troops to leave (and do not view neighboring countries as a threat), whereas many South Koreans at least initially backed a U.S. military presence as "protection" from North Korean attack. If South Korea is Bush's model for Iraq, then North Korea is clearly his model for Iran. Yet the Iraqi leaders he claims want "enduring" U.S. bases are predominantly Shi'as who actually want good relations with Iran. Bush intends to oust-constitutionally or otherwise--the elected Shi'a government that he once called a miracle of democracy, and now sees as too close to Iran. As the only remaining large countries in the region that do not yet host U.S. military bases, Iran and Syria are the last obstacles to a contiguous American sphere of influence (stretching from Poland to Pakistan) situated between the emerging economic competitors of the EU and China. The "Korea Model" would make it easier to target Iran as a perpetual enemy state.
"But rather than following a "Korea Model" in Iraq, the U.S. actually appears to be following a "Palestine Model." Just as the Israeli state uses multiple military posts, checkpoints, and imprisonment to intimidate and control an independence-minded population, U.S. forces are carrying out the same tactics in Iraq--with an identical rationale of fighting Islamic "terrorists." In the name of separating hostile populations, the U.S. occupiers have gone to the point of constructing an Israeli-style separation wall between Sunni and Shi'a neighborhoods in Baghdad. Much as armed settler militias carry out the Israeli military's dirty work on the West Bank, the American forces in Iraq hire private security contractors such as Blackwater, which are now being exposed as mercenary goons who endanger democracy in Iraq and at home.
"Because Bush cannot admit to either Arab states or the American public that the decades-long Israeli occupation is the closest parallel with his long-term plans for Iraq, he has to tout the ridiculous "Korea Model." His calculation is that Congress will accept the drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraqi cities, not through a withdrawal out of country, but through a "redeployment" into the heavily fortified imperial garrisons. These bases include Green Zone, Baghdad Airport, Balad (central), Al Asad (west), Tallil (south), Bashur (north), and about ten other major installations covering the Sunni, Shi'a and Kurdish regions. In fact, an "enduring" occupation run from these large bases has been the central plan since Day One of the Iraq War.
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