The June 30 "sovereignty hand-over" is a sham.

[Vympel]

Let's Make Enemies

A growing number of Iraqis are certainly under that impression, but it has far less to do with an inflammatory newspaper than with the inflammatory actions of the US occupation authority. As the June 30 "handover" approaches, Paul Bremer has unveiled a slew of new tricks to hold on to power long after "sovereignty" has been declared.

Some recent highlights: At the end of March, building on his Order 39 of last September, Bremer passed yet another law further opening up Iraq's economy to foreign ownership, a law that Iraq's next government is prohibited from changing under the terms of the interim constitution. Bremer also announced the establishment of several independent regulators, which will drastically reduce the power of Iraqi government ministries. For instance, the Financial Times reports that "officials of the Coalition Provisional Authority said the regulator would prevent communications minister Haider al-Abadi, a thorn in the side of the coalition, from carrying out his threat to cancel licenses the coalition awarded to foreign-managed consortia to operate three mobile networks and the national broadcaster."

The CPA has also confirmed that after June 30, the $18.4 billion the US government is spending on reconstruction will be administered by the US Embassy in Iraq. The money will be spent over five years and will fundamentally redesign Iraq's most basic infrastructure, including its electricity, water, oil and communications sectors, as well as its courts and police. Iraq's future governments will have no say in the construction of these core sectors of Iraqi society. Retired Rear Adm. David Nash, who heads the Project Management Office, which administers the funds, describes the $18.4 billion as "a gift from the American people to the people of Iraq." He appears to have forgotten the part about gifts being something you actually give up. And in the same eventful week, US engineers began construction on fourteen "enduring bases" in Iraq, capable of housing the 110,000 soldiers who will be posted here for at least two more years. Even though the bases are being built with no mandate from an Iraqi government, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy chief of operations in Iraq, called them "a blueprint for how we could operate in the Middle East."

The US occupation authority has also found a sneaky way to maintain control over Iraq's armed forces. Bremer has issued an executive order stating that even after the interim Iraqi government has been established, the Iraqi army will answer to US commander Lieut. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez. In order to pull this off, Washington is relying on a legalistic reading of a clause in UN Security Council Resolution 1511, which puts US forces in charge of Iraq's security until "the completion of the political process" in Iraq. Since the "political process" in Iraq is never-ending, so, it seems, is US military control.

In the same flurry of activity, the CPA announced that it would put further constraints on the Iraqi military by appointing a national security adviser for Iraq. This US appointee would have powers equivalent to those held by Condoleezza Rice and will stay in office for a five-year term, long after Iraq is scheduled to have made the transition to a democratically elected government.

There is one piece of this country, though, that the US government is happy to cede to the people of Iraq: the hospitals. On March 27 Bremer announced that he had withdrawn the senior US advisers from Iraq's Health Ministry, making it the first sector to achieve "full authority" in the US occupation.

Taken together, these latest measures paint a telling picture of what a "free Iraq" will look like: The United States will maintain its military and corporate presence through fourteen enduring military bases and the largest US Embassy in the world. It will hold on to authority over Iraq's armed forces, its security and economic policy and the design of its core infrastructure--but the Iraqis can deal with their decrepit hospitals all by themselves, complete with their chronic drug shortages and lack of the most basic sanitation capacity. (US Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson revealed just how low a priority this was when he commented that Iraq's hospitals would be fixed if the Iraqis "just washed their hands and cleaned the crap off the walls.")

On nights when there are no nearby explosions, we hang out at the hotel, jumping at the sound of car doors slamming. Sometimes we flick on the news and eavesdrop on a faraway debate about whether invading Iraq has made Americans safer. Few seem interested in the question of whether the invasion has made Iraqis feel safer, which is too bad because the questions are intimately related. As Khamis says, "It's not the war that caused the hatred. It's what they did after. What they are doing now."

[Crown]

Well of course America needs to get its money back from 'rescuing' the Iraqi people ... what? Who ever said this was a selfless and just war?

[Iceberg]

This is Mark.

This is Mark not being surprised.

[Tsyroc]

So I guess the US embassy in Iraq is going to be packed with troops and government officials for quite awhile.


On the one hand this makes us look like greedy lying sacks of shit, again (still).

On the other hand I was wondering how anyone could think they could just dump Iraq off on it's own so soon and not have it copletely meltdown into multiple groups fighting for control / right grievances / get revenge / etc....


So, in a way it's nice to see that our government isn't smokin' as much crack as I thought they were, but I have to wonder how they think the US voters are going to react to this crap.

[Tsyroc]

So really Iraq will be changing from an hand pupet completely controlled by the US to a marrionette where the US pulls all the strings.

[Crown]

So really Iraq will be changing from an hand pupet completely controlled by the US to a marrionette where the US pulls all the strings.

All it would take to bring down this house of cards is one marrionette who resents US control to silently slip through the cracks, get to power and just totally try and sever all the strings publicly. (I am going with the metaphor here so work with me)

He will of course be 'delt with' (smear campaign, denounced, take your pick), removed from office and replaced. But then the jig would be up.

I would be interesting as to how the rest of the oil producing countries react to this, and what damage they could do to the US. While no where near a confirmed thing, SA has been sliding closer and closer to Moscow over the years. One of them is the worlds largest oil producer, and the other is the worlds largest natural gas depot (and in the reverse they come pretty close too).

Moscow has the military might to ward off any American misadventures in its boarders. Effectively has Europe by the balls; if there was a price hike in oil due to Russia stopping production Germany's economy would be hit so hard that the current economic status would seem 'robust' by comparison! And if the current trend of closer diplomatic ties between Moscow and Riyadh continue to interwine, Moscow could also provide some measure of protection.

Which would leave America holding the bag in Iraq, now facing international condemnation, or at the very least stiff pressure, and its most traditional allies would be facing fiscal problems on scales we couldn't imagine. And its (and perhaps any allies that choose to side with it) only major source of oil (outside the US) would be Iraq, a country who's population is no doubt at this point hating them. Unless of course Iran decides to start exporting to America ( ).

Of course this is a worst case scenario that relies on many lax American counter maneuvering, and probably would never happen. But still something to look forward to I guess.


*Note to self; invest in gold*

EDIT :: Just in case I didn't make it obviously clear; the above is a slippery slope scenario which requires an unprecedanted lapse in US Administration's higher brainfunctioning power. It was presented as a little intellectual excerise of glimpsing the future in a sort of 'what if' scenario.

[Fire Fly]

There's something about the whole Iraq finance thing I don't get. Why must the Russians, Japanese, French, Germans, and whoever else have to forgive the debts but somehow the US gets all the money it sent as a "gift" back from the new Iraq? I would be willing to support the entire Iraq effort a whole lot more if it had been more honest from the get go. I'm all for helping out people, but you don't help out someone and expect them to repay you back for it, do you?

But that's just me.

[Patrick Degan]

Well, bang goes Excuse n.4 for the war.

[Edi]

Remind me again, Patrick, which one was that? I know them all but can never remember the correct order except for WMD being #1.

Edi

[Patrick Degan]

Remind me again, Patrick, which one was that? I know them all but can never remember the correct order except for WMD being #1.

Edi

The whole "liberating the Iraqi people and bringing them freedom and democracy" bit. I think that was Excuse n.4; admittedly I've lost count.

[MKSheppard]

I really don't see anything wrong with opening the Iraqi economy to foreign
companies, unless you'd rather have them nationalize everything...yes, what
a wonderful thing it has been for the middle east......or mexico......Crippling
poverty won't be stopped by nationalizing everything; the money will instead
flow into the government ministers' pockets.

[MKSheppard]

a law that Iraq's next government is prohibited from changing under the terms of the interim constitution.

Yeah, Lets let them turn it into an islamic theocracy, allau ackbar!

Bremer also announced the establishment of several independent regulators, which will drastically reduce the power of Iraqi government ministries.

Yes of course, the Iraqis will magically convert to a middle eastern
democracy after thirty plus years of dictatorship, preceeded
by monarchal rule!

Iraq's future governments will have no say in the construction of these core sectors of Iraqi society.

Of course, we'd want ALL the rebar allocated for that highway
overpass to acutally be put in the overpass, rather than sold off on the
sly by the Iraqis. Can we say...CORRUPTION Boys and Girlies?

And in the same eventful week, US engineers began construction on fourteen "enduring bases" in Iraq, capable of housing the 110,000 soldiers who will be posted here for at least two more years.

Of course, you'd rather us stay as squatters on Iraqi government property?

(former Iraqi Airbases, military posts, and Saddam Palaces)

The US occupation authority has also found a sneaky way to maintain control over Iraq's armed forces. Bremer has issued an executive order stating that even after the interim Iraqi government has been established, the Iraqi army will answer to US commander Lieut. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez.

Uh huh, Funny how the commander of the BAOR (British Army of the RHine) commanded all the forces in NORTHAG (Northern Army Group),
consisting of US, German, French, and Belgian troops during the
Cold War rather than having a hogepodge chain of command.

If shit happens, wouldn't you rather have a unified chain of command
that has Iraqi and US units operating from the same HQ and getting the
same information rather than a hogepodge of liason officers?

Taken together, these latest measures paint a telling picture of what a "free Iraq" will look like: The United States will maintain its military and corporate presence through fourteen enduring military bases and the largest US Embassy in the world. It will hold on to authority over Iraq's armed forces, its security and economic policy and the design of its core infrastructure--but the Iraqis can deal with their decrepit hospitals all by themselves, complete with their chronic drug shortages and lack of the most basic sanitation capacity. (US Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson revealed just how low a priority this was when he commented that Iraq's hospitals would be fixed if the Iraqis "just washed their hands and cleaned the crap off the walls.")

Wank wank wank wank, sort of like how we had a massive military
presence in Germany, controlled NATO (the highest NATO general
was always a US General during the cold war)...next you're going to tell
me that Rammstein and all the other bases in germany are really part
of a seekrit US plot to retain control of germany that has worked for
the last Sixty years?

For christs sake, we virtually controlled Germany and Japan for quite
a while and look how well they turned out, compared to say....Kosovo,
where we did nothing at all.

[Dargos]

Does this REALLY come to a surprise to anyone? DUH!!

[Psycho Smiley]

Does this REALLY come to a surprise to anyone? DUH!!

Sadly enough, no. Even if everything went according to the "official" (read: overly optimistic and idealistic) plan, the States would be taking crap for Iraq. This isn't helping matters.

[SPOOFE]

For some reason, the word "gradual" pops into my mind. Followed closely by the sneaking suspicion that it has yet to pop into the minds of most everyone else...

[Darth Wong]

I really don't see anything wrong with opening the Iraqi economy to foreign companies, unless you'd rather have them nationalize everything...yes, what a wonderful thing it has been for the middle east......or mexico......Crippling poverty won't be stopped by nationalizing everything; the money will instead flow into the government ministers' pockets.

It's wrong when you claim to be "liberating" these people, and instead intend to only give them the "freedom" to do what you think is best. Why not just call Iraq a US territory and be done with it?

[Durandal]

a law that Iraq's next government is prohibited from changing under the terms of the interim constitution.

Yeah, Lets let them turn it into an islamic theocracy, allau ackbar!

We already have. Their Constitution will include a clause stating that Iraq is a Muslim nation, and we seem to be okay with that. Once we pull out of there for good and hand over sovereignty to them, it's only a matter of time before they just start appealing to that clause to pass whatever idiotic Qa'ran-based legislation they want.

[MKSheppard]

It's wrong when you claim to be "liberating" these people, and instead intend to only give them the "freedom" to do what you think is best.

Well, would you rather them continue down the same path that Arab nations
do? We're trying to break the cycle here.

Why not just call Iraq a US territory and be done with it?

We prefer "valued allly"

[Andrew J.]

Why didn't we just write the damn iraqi constitution ourselves? Hell, we let someone who turned out to be a nuke-happy megalomaniac write Japan's constitution, andthey turned out okay.