http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/070204A.shtml
At War
By Marc Ash
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Friday 02 July 2004
"Mr. President, Iraq is sovereign."
With a simple handwritten note, national security advisor Condoleezza
Rice made her bid to author one of the biggest and most brazen lies of
our lifetimes.
No, Iraq is not sovereign, far from it.
Iraq today remains occupied by a large, primarily US, military force
of nearly 150,000.
The presence of a foreign army is without popular support from the
Iraqi people.
Far from being embraced, the occupation has given rise to a local
resistance prepared to give their lives to drive those they view as
invaders from their homeland.
In the 48 hours since Rice penned her note to Bush, four American
soldiers have lost their lives and at least eleven more have been
wounded.
A massive dis-information campaign has been waged in the US to
convince the public that "Iraqis" now control their own fate.
But the reality is that the Bush administration has hastily authorized
our military to recall thousands of recently discharged veterans in an
attempt to bolster an occupying force faced with fierce resistance.
The hasty Saigon-style exit of US overseer L. Paul Bremer III may not
have been an escape, but it looked like one.
Bremer's departure did however serve to draw attention away from the
arrival of his replacement.
The new American "Ambassador" to Iraq, John D. Negroponte, arrived
almost without mention, a "diplomatic" force 1,700 strong in tow.
If you have any misconceptions about Negroponte's mission in Iraq
being a diplomatic one, put them to rest now.
Mr. Negroponte's specialty is not diplomacy, it is mass graves.
As US Ambassador to Honduras during the Reagan administration, he was
the Iran-Contra point man in the region.
In 1984 the Reagan administration's plan to ignore the will of
Congress and crush the duly elected Sandinista government in Nicaragua
was in full swing.
Money was coming in from the sale of arms to Iran, the CIA was
training death squads to kill anyone who opposed the Reagan agenda,
and someone had to coordinate those efforts.
That someone was John D. Negroponte.
Specifically, Negroponte is charged by human rights groups with
running political cover for the CIA sponsored Honduran Intelligence
Battalion 3-16.
Battalion 3-16, led by General Luis Alonso Discua Elvir, a graduate of
the School of the Americas, was directly responsible for the
disappearance of thousands of Nicaraguans who did nothing more than
resist a foreign overthrow of their chosen leaders.
Fast forward, Iraq 2004. Newly US-appointed interim Prime Minister
Iyad Allawi is a CIA favorite and has vowed to "crush" the resistance.
John D. Negroponte arrives in the nick of time to play the role of
Ambassador, and all players are in place.
Yes, Abu Ghraib was bad, but what's coming could easily be far worse.
The elaborate and expensive "Iraqi Rule" charade is a
made-for-American-TV production being thrown together literally on an
hour-to-hour basis.
The parading of former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein provides vivid
insight into the desperate, even frantic, bid to maintain a veneer of
order in the eyes of US voters.
With mind-boggling, chorus-line precision, every major corporate news
agency in the US shouted, in unison, on cue:
"Legal Custody of Saddam Transferred to Iraqis."
For the record, Saddam is under US military armed guard now and will
be until he dies.
The rest of it is 100% grade-A, all-American bovine feces.
Although it should be noted that the nephew of accused Iranian spy
Ahmed Chalabi, Salem Chalabi, has been cast in the role of Judge in
Saddam's made-for-TV trial: that should prove interesting.
It is difficult to imagine how Saddam Hussein can get anything
approaching a fair trial.
His testimony would be an embarrassment to the current occupants of
the White House who for so long funded and supplied him, benefiting
from his repression of true Iraqi interests.
All this knowing well the scope of his crimes.
So, once again, it's the all too familiar, rock-and-hard-place
scenario.
No, Iraq is not sovereign, not by a long shot, and there isn't anyone
in Washington that wants it to be anytime soon.
No one knows that better that than those telling the lie.
No, there is no multi-national force.
It's George W. Bush in control of the US military and his cronies
reaping the profits.
Lost in all this are those who pay the price of war, those whose lives
are torn apart or ended and forgotten.
When all the money has been made, and deposited, and spent, who will
remember those who carried the rifle or lost the leg?
When we leave Mesopotamia, and we will, who will think of the child
crushed beneath the wheel of greed?
_____________________________________________________
Harry
.
|
