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Oil Bush legacy in Iraq
June 22, 2004 Edition 1
By the Editor
Next Wednesday is D-Day in Iraq. The big question is D-Day for what? If one were to believe George W Bush and
his friends then it's all peace and democracy.
In fact, last week the US president got so carried away by the thought of handing over power to the Iraqis that he spoke about "bringing back a 5 000-year-old civilisation". And as if that wasn't enough to fire the emotions of the faithful in Washington, he went on to declare that the recent magnanimity of his coalition of the deluded had brought freedom to 50-million people in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The only claims he can, of course, make with any certainty are that he toppled the Saddam Hussein and Taliban regimes and that his troops have sown widespread death and destruction in those two newly "liberated" countries.
It also is not clear what Bush means when he says that the Americans will "stand with them (the two sets of peoples) until their freedom is secure". Does that mean that around 150 000 foreign troops will remain in Iraq indefinitely? Does it mean that those troops will effectively do as they please while the new caretaker government tries to govern what is currently almost ungovernable?
The Iraq Mr Bush is handing back is - in the words of an article from the Los Angeles Times - "a nation in disarray, riven with bombings, assassinations and sabotage". It is a country with 6 000 political prisoners. It is a country in which there is a Shi'ite uprising, pockets of Sunni resistence and a Kurdish community that once again believes it has been sold out.
It must be hoped that the Iraqi people can find the will and the way to rebuild their society. But they needn't spend too much time pretending to be grateful for that bequeathed to them by Bush.
The greatest danger now is that we end up with nothing more than a puppet administration in Baghdad. One that serves as an excuse for the Americans to carry on safeguarding their oil interests, while claiming to be acting on behalf of a UN-recognised Iraqi government. That will be the ultimate con.
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