Pacific Views

Losing It in Iraq

While Bush, Cheney and Condi roam the countryside telling us that things are going well in Iraq, Steve Guillard once again shows what total liars they are. Steve calls them Stalinists, and I believe that is an awfully good description of how they operate as they try to convince people that black is white using gross propoganda and intimidation. (Look for the post titled "The Happy Face Offensive".)

I saw a cartoon with Condi Rice holding a gigantic smiley face over rubble. The perfect metaphor for this war and the way it's been conducted. In a series of speeches, administration officials are trying to basically turn lead into gold. Their political alchemy "the press has it wrong, things are going well in Iraq" is the hallmark of the utter dishonesty of the Bush White House. Things are not going well, because if they were, the UN would be moving full steam ahead, young Sadr would be regarded as a crank and Al-Hakim would be alive.

There is a lot of news not quite making the mainstream news that makes the situation in Iraq really unsettling. Xymphora has some links to articles that along with those from Riverbend, tell me we are on the verge of much, much worse news from Iraq.

If xymphora is correct, the US military is participating in "collective punishment":

"Last week, the Americans destroyed the palm orchard that has been in twenty-five year old Mohamed Ali Sadoun's family for fifty years because passing U.S. convoys had been attacked from its cover. 'As far as I am concerned, it is Israel that destroyed my orchard,' Ali Sadoun said. It took three days for the American bulldozers to uproot all of his one-thousand date palms. When Ali Sadoun asked for a few days reprieve to harvest the dates, the Americans refused.

'I hated the Americans before and I hate them more now,' he said. 'I will teach my children and their children to hate the Americans until the end of their lives. Even if they pave our streets in gold, we don't want them here.'"

(Steve G has a link to backup this story from the Independent.)

As xymphora says, this type of reaction is illegal under the Geneva convention, but geeze, with the Bushies, I would not be surprised to see this type of reaction being tolerated. And he notes that a number of Iraqis that are starting to really resent the "accidents" which result in dead Iraqis.

"The coalition has tried to cultivate allies among influential local Iraqis, such as Sheik Mishkhen Jumaili, a leader of a prominent local tribe who serves on the American-installed Governing Council in Ramadi. But in the last two weeks, Jumaili has lost nine family members, including his son, in a series of accidental shootings by American troops.

'They mean to kill as many Iraqis as possible,' Jumaili said, fighting back tears at the funeral of his cousin Beijiya last week. "All the tribes are suffering. This is murder.' It is impossible for US troops to tally the number of civilians killed by mistake, said Lieutenant Kate Noble, a spokeswoman for the coalition troops: "It would be really irresponsible on our part to give estimates." But it is hard to find a family in Ramadi or Fallujah that does not say it has lost a relative in a shooting."

And what is behind the demonstrations in Sadr city these days? Our news programs note that there have been some demonstrations, but why? For some mysterious reason, the Shiites are unhappy. But we really don't know why. News reports say that the Iraqis say the Americans started the problem, and the Americans say they started it. Well, isn't that enlightening?

Whatever the reason, it appears that the result is that a (illegitimate Islamic) Shiite government is coming into fruition. The Iraqi US handpicked government has condemned this upstart, but it does not look like there is an easy way to shove this particular genie back into the bottle.

Bush's legendary luck is once again proving to be a bane to all that invested in his gamble. Unfortunately, this time Bush backed his gamble with the US's currency and military. And we can expect to pay for his bad bet for a long, long time.

Update: Juan Cole has much more context about what is happening with the Shiite resistance and he says that the shadow government is built upon a movement that is millenarian.

That young Shiite sectarian leader Muqtada al-Sadr has chosen this anniversary to announce that he will form an Iraqi government points to the millenarian beliefs of the Sadrists. (Milleniarian movements typically believe that the world as we know it is about to end through divine intervention.)

So now we have the fundamentalists in the Christian right believing that the second coming will be presaged by war stated in the Middle East facing off Shiite millenarists. Throw into this potent mix Israeli's Sharon who as Meteor Blades reports is threatening Iran, and it is hard to see how the world charts a path through the landmines. Is this a cosmic joke or what?

Posted by Mary at October 12, 2003 03:23 AM | TrackBack