Democracy Or
Colonial Dictatorship?
By Ghali Hassan
11 April, 2005
Countercurrents.org
After
two months of wrangling and haggling over the forming of the new Iraqi
"government", the US got what it wants, a US government. The
Iraqi people are saying: 'How could we have elected those people'? And
those are the people the US will continue to protect. At gunpoint, the
Iraqi people have been denied the right to govern their country and
live in peace.
Iraqis were disappointed
by the results of the infighting between the expatriates in their bunker.
The rigged elections and the US-crafted and unconstitutional Transitional
Administrative Law (TAL) gave the Kurds veto power, not only over the
new constitution, but also to derail any democratic negotiation, including
the end to the US Occupation of Iraq. The TAL requires the national
assembly to have two thirds of its votes to confirm a government, a
requirement found in no other democratic system in the world.
The vote for secret
candidate lists have to be altered so that US allies, the Kurds, will
have the final say in any decision-making. On 13 February 2005 and few
hours before the final results were officially announced, Reuters reported
that "the United Iraqi Alliance [UIA] said today it had been told
by Iraq's Electoral Commission that it had won around 60 per cent of
the vote in the country's election". Scott Ritter later confirmed
this, the former UNSCOM weapons inspector in Iraq, announced in Washington
State on 19 February that the UIA actually won 56 per cent of the vote,
and that "an official involved in the manipulation was the source".
The manipulated 48 per cent vote won by the 'Shiites slate' deprives
the UIA of an outright majority. And so, Mr. Rumsfeld 'messy democracy'
needs tidying up a bit when the US doesn't like the results. US actions
in Iraq instigated violence, dividing Iraqis and preparing the nation
for civil war. After all, the US and its allies have the most to gain
from division and sectarian violence.
The selection of
Jalal Talabani as Iraq's president is 'democracy' gone too far. A Kurdish
president of a country with more than 85 percent of the population is
Arab. Out of 275 seats, the Kurds "gained" 75 seats at the
expense of Iraqis who rejected the Occupation and boycotted the illegitimate
elections. Jalal Talabani is a Kurdish warlord and a well-known opportunist,
and leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). His ties span
wide enough that his own people call the "Everybody's Agent".
He is also known among the Kurds as "the man with many orifices".
From his friendship with Saddam Hussein, to his support for Tehran in
the Iraq-Iran war, to his contacts with the C.I.A. and Israel may be
he travelled too far. Talabani's love affairs with Saddam were so deep
that a full book is required to
explain.
Talabani's two vice
presidents are: Ghazi Al-Yawar, the former US-appointed president of
the Iraqi Interim Government (IIG). Al-Yawar is an expatriate and influential
Sunni sheikh of the Shammar tribe. Mr. Al-Yawar position is only symbolic
and design to deceive Iraqis to support this farce parliament. The fact
that he refused to be the Speaker was proof of his displeasure with
the selection process and the election. The second vice president is
Adel Abdul-Mahdi of the UIA list, the list that includes Ayatollah Ali
Al-Sistani and Ahmed Chelabi.
Adel Abdul-Mahdi
is a long-time expatriate of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution
(SCIRI) in Iraq and the interim finance minister and a member of the
US-appointed IIG. He is the perfect replacement for Paul Bremer, the
former US Proconsul in Iraq. Abdul-Mehdi is now responsible for putting
to work Paul Bremers's illegal 100 Orders to sale Iraq and the Iraqi
economy to US corporations. A former Maoist turned pro-US 'free-marketer'
who promised Washington to privatize the Iraqi oil industry in favour
of US oil giant corporations. In his last two visits to Washington,
he told the Americans before the elections that if he is to be put in
a top position, he will give US oil corporation Iraq's oil and public
industry.
The head (prime
minister) of the new "government" has been finally appointed.
He is the Da'wa Party senior leader, Ibrahim Jaafari of the UIA, a long-time
expatriate and member of IGC. Jaafari is a religious figure and close
to many Iranian clerics, including Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani. Like
all the other expatriates and IGC members, he is not known in Iraq.
He spent most of his time in Iran and Britain. Like the all other expatriates,
his animosity towards Saddam was personal and self-interest.
Once they are settled-down
in their new position, the expatriates or the quislings will begin working
on drafting a permanent constitution, by August 15, before new elections.
Their textbook will be Bremer's "transitional constitution"
and his 100 Orders to privatise Iraq. A legitimate and independent Iraqi
government has the right to use its power to annual Bremer's monstrous
and illegal "transitional constitution" and Orders. Sadly,
the 30 January elections produced a US puppet government from inside
the fortified US "Green Zone", and its survival depends on
its symbiotic relationship with the Occupation forces.
What Iraq will look
like if the new "government" succumb to US dictates and Orders?
"A small sampling of the most important orders demonstrates the
economic imprint left by the Bush administration: Order No. 39 allows
for: (1) privatization of Iraq's 200 state-owned enterprises; (2) 100%
foreign ownership of Iraqi businesses; (3) 'national treatment' - which
means no preferences for local over foreign businesses; (4) unrestricted,
tax-free remittance of all profits and other funds; and (5) 40-year
ownership licenses", wrote Antonia Juhasz, a project director at
the International Forum on Globalization in San Francisco (LATimes,
August 05, 2004).
Antonia Juhasz added;
"Orders No. 57 and No. 77 ensure the implementation of the orders
by placing U.S.-appointed auditors and inspector generals in every government
ministry, with five-year terms and with sweeping authority over contracts,
programs, employees and regulations". "Order No. 17 grants
foreign contractors, including private security firms, full immunity
from Iraq's laws. Even if they, say, kill someone or cause an environmental
disaster, the injured party cannot turn to the Iraqi legal system. Rather,
the charges must be brought to U.S. courts". She continued; "Clearly,
the Bremer orders fundamentally altered Iraq's existing laws. For this
reason, they are also illegal. Transformation of an occupied country's
laws violates the Hague regulations of 1907 (ratified by the United
States) and the U.S. Army's Law of Land Warfare". The US administration
expects the new Iraqi "government" to legitimise and enforce
the Orders on behalf of US corporations. The "new" Iraq will
look like a K-Mart with oil pumping stations.
The elections were
a US trap. The Iraqi people have been deceived to vote for a US government.
Instead of ending the Occupation peacefully by the ballot box, Iraqis
were actually voted for the continuation of the Occupation and US domination.
Western Liberal elites and the "anti-war" organisers, who
endorsed and hailed the elections as "praiseworthy" should
be ashamed for not only, betraying their own moral consciousness, but
also the Iraqi people.
The new Iraqi parliament
is a farce. The Bush administration is using this farce as a model of
colonial dictatorship, in which few (Iraqi) expatriates or natives are
allowed to manage their own affairs, while the Occupation and US control
of Iraq's oil resources will continue. In this way, the US will create
legitimacy to its ongoing occupation of the Iraqi people. It is important
to remember that just after the elections, the US refused to provide
timetable for troops withdrawal, and the US Occupation of Iraq was no
longer the focus in Western and US media.
In the US, Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice announced last week in Washington that Zalmay
Khalilzad has been nominated the new US ambassador to Iraq. Khalilzad,
an Afghan-born American, has been the US ambassador to Kabul since 2003.
His legacy in Afghanistan is: He left Afghanistan ruled by criminal
warlords, a permanent US military base and one of the largest opium
producing US colony in the world. Khalilzad is the 'neocons' emissary.
His mentors are Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Richard
Perle. Like them, he advocated the invasion of Iraq in the mid 1990s
and is one of the leading proponents of US new imperialist agenda. Khalilzad
is known in the US as the best packaged Colonial Ambassador, in that
he is an assimilated American with the Oriental look. His main task
in Iraq is to streamline Iraq to suit Washington and Israel imperialist
agenda, and to facilitate US control over Iraq's, and the region vital
oil resources.
Meanwhile, two years
have passed since the US-Britain armies invaded Iraq; more Iraqis today
are imprisoned than at any point in the history of Iraq. Innocent men,
women and children are illegally held at notorious prisons of abuse,
torture and murder. Many of Iraqi prisoners are held secretly in different
locations and beyond the reach of any human rights monitors. Occupation
forces killed Iraqis routinely, with complete impunity, at checkpoints,
in their homes, and in detention facilities. A report in the credible
British journal, The Lancet, on November 2004, shows that from March
2003 to October 2004, US armed forces and its mercenaries have killed
more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians; over half of them were women and
children. The estimate is very conservative in that it excluded the
high civilians death in Fallujah, and the complete destruction of a
once vibrant city of 300,000 people. Other major Iraqi cities and towns
are experiencing similar destruction and atrocities, with the full cooperation
of Western mainstream media.
Malnutrition among
Iraqi children under the age of 5 years have doubled to nearly 8 percent
since the US invasion of Iraq as a result of lack of drinking water,
food, and adequate sanitation. A report prepared for the UN Human Rights
Commission reveals that more than a quarter (3-4 millions) of Iraqi
children do not get enough food to eat. Food, drinking water and the
supply of electricity have continued to decrease to levels below to
that during the genocidal sanctions. Unemployment among Iraqis is more
than 70 percent and the population purchasing power at a dangerous level.
Iraq's economy has worsened, poverty has increased and living standards
in Iraq declined markedly. Iraqis continue to be humiliated and abused
in violent house-to-house searches being conducted by US forces, accompanied
by the criminal Kurdish Peshmerga militias. All these atrocities and
destruction are committed with the full knowledge and blessing of the
new US-approved Iraqi "government".
Will the Iraqi people
allow this form of colonial dictatorship to continue? I do not believe
so. Demonstrations against the Occupation and the new "government"
have already taken place in many parts of Iraq. Hundreds of thousands
of people marched in Baghdad on Saturday denouncing the US
Occupation and terrorism in Iraq, and demanding the release of Iraqi
prisoners and detainees Link here.
The war against
Iraq was a murderous crime and those who are responsible for it, and
for the destruction of Iraqi society, should face war crimes trials.
The US-British Occupation is illegal and has failed to deliver Iraqis'
most basic necessities and security, let alone 'freedom' or 'democracy'.
The Iraqi people
Resistance will continue until the US end its murderous Occupation of
Iraq. Resistance against the Occupation is the unquestionable right
of the Iraqi people to self-determination. The Iraqi people had enough
of tyranny and dictatorship. Colonial dictatorship has been tried in
Iraq before and has ended in bloodbath. The Iraqi people have rejected
the presence of the US, and the violence brought with it. The US has
no reason to be in Iraq. All the reasons for this act of aggression
and the Occupation of Iraq have been exposed as lies.
Ghali Hassan lives
in Perth, Western Australia.