And
The Truth The Victors Refuse To See
By
Robert Fisk
Daily Times
04 June, 2003
Iraqis, it now seems certain, are to be blessed this week with a visit
from their Liberator-in-Chief, George Bush Jr. While Washington has
been avoiding all mention of the trip, the new Iraqi newspapers - one
of the few positive results of liberation here - have been
happily speculating for days on Bushs arrival.
And we all know what the
American President would like to do when he arrives: to be filmed inspecting
Saddams weapons of mass destruction, the purported reason for
the Anglo-American invasion illegally launched against Iraq. The problem,
of course, is that there dont appear to be any.
So how will the Bush public
relations boys manage this particular piece of theatre? Heres
an idea of what they are preparing, the stage-managed victory
tour of George W Bush. But first, this is what the President should
be doing if he really wants to understand the epic crisis that now confronts
the nation he was so keen to liberate.
First, join a gas queue.
George Bush will help to push his limousine to the back of the three-mile
petrol line by the Hussein bridge - many motorists run dry before they
reach the queue - and here he will wait ... and wait and wait. Eight
hours if hes lucky, maybe 12. Maybe 24.
Then George Bush can visit
the 158 Iraqi government ministry buildings that should be the infrastructure
of the new US-backed government which he has sworn to establish here.
He will see, of course, that of the 158 buildings, every one was looted
and then burned after the Americans occupied Baghdad.
Next, a trip to the former
Saddam City, now Sadr City, the vast, foetid, boiling Shia
Muslim slums where power is now dangerously divided between three prelates,
all of whom oppose the American presence with varying degrees of ferocity
and self-interest. Mr Bush will discover that nationalist and religious
sentiment - rather than Iranian terrorism or interference
- demand an American departure. Mr Bush will take tea with a Shia family
at midday when, as usual, there is no electricity, so that he, like
them, will sweat for an hour in their hovel.
A tour of hotels, offices
and shops will have one common denominator: the gray penumbra-like marks
on the wall of each room where a portrait of the Beast of Baghdad was
hanging not long ago. Mr Bush will ask what the owners have done with
Saddams portrait. He will be told that it has been put away for
historical reasons - the same reason my driver gave last week
for buying a Baathist-produced history of the Iraqi economy at the book
souk here - rather than destroyed. Indeed, I visited a lawyer last week
who still kept Saddams picture on her wall, on the grounds that
he is still the President until we have a new government.
Of course, Mr Bush will visit the town of Falujah where American Marines
gunned down 18 Sunni Muslim demonstrators last month and where two gunmen
this week shot dead two US soldiers and wounded another 11 before being
killed. He will be told that these were merely remnants
of the Saddam regime.
Then a visit to the mass
graves. This will be a tricky one. If the corpses are those of Iraqis
butchered in the uprising against Saddams regime - which was encouraged
by George Bushs father, who then betrayed the rebels by refusing
to intervene - then the US President will be reminded of Americas
treachery as well as Saddams horrific cruelty. If the dead are
from the massacres of the early 1980s, then someone will point out that
Mr Bushs Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, was visiting Baghdad
at the time and shook hands with this vicious dictator on behalf of
President Reagan - and did nothing to stop these vilest of human rights
abuses. Finally, he will drop in for a little tourism at the Baghdad
Archeological Museum, so comprehensively looted after the Americans
entered Baghdad last month. He will see smashed statues, heaps of Sumerian
vases broken into pieces and photographs of the 4,000-year-old masterpieces
stolen from the museum in the course of just a few hours.
President Bush will leave
Iraq as he came - not by air, because the US authorities still dont
allow commercial flights to Baghdad - but on the long and dangerous
road to Amman where armed thieves roam the motorway past Ramadi, where
no driver goes by night. He will thus experience life for ordinary Iraqis
in the wake of their liberation: the fear of anarchy and
lawlessness, of robbery and assault.
And what will President George
Bush really do when he comes to Iraq? Mass graves are probably out,
for obvious reasons. A hospital visit is a good idea - US medical aid
can be shown arriving fortuitously at that moment - but there would
be no assurance that doctors would keep quiet about the 70 murdered
men and women whose corpses arrived last week alone at their hospitals
in Baghdad. A victory drive through the city is impossible because Bush
will be met by demonstrations rather than flowers.
So it looks like an arrival
at Baghdad airport, a chat to aid officials, perhaps a brief helicopter
flight to the headquarters of the American civilian administration in
Saddams old Palace of the Republic - here, he can be horrified
at the corruption of a despot who could starve his people but build
palaces for his own vanity - and, of course, an address to the Iraqi
people on television. There may be little electricity to power the TV
sets of Baghdad, but the speech could go something like this:
I come to Iraq at a
historic moment, when the people of this ancient country, whose history
is as long as the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, are on the threshold
of a new life.... In the country where civilization began, a miracle
has taken place.... A cruel and brutal dictator has been overthrown
... the people of the United States of America along with the Coalition
Allies are proud to have been able to help you bring about your new-found
freedom...
I know there are frustrations
... the overthrow of tyrants is not without pain ... there are still
those who will try to rob you of this freedom, the remnants of Saddams
old regime, interference from Iraqs neighbors... Iraqis can rest
assured we will stand with them against these enemies of their country.
We will not let you down.... A new world is being shaped in the Middle
East, of which you are now a part.
After years of darkness,
you are now joining the brotherhood of free nations. I ask you to share
with us the burdens of building this new world.... The nightmare is
over. The days of hope for your children and your grandchildren have
begun. You have your freedom. We rejoice with you. Much of the
above has been used on occasion by other US administration officials,
especially in Afghanistan.
It was Clinton who told the
Pakistanis that their history was as long as the river Indus. But will
Bush mention the oil word? Much more to the point, dare
he mention the weapons of mass destruction which even the Iraqis no
longer believe to exist? As they say at the bottom of every public relations
handout: check against delivery.