| In a Nutshell |
5 April 2004
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US Authorities Shut Down Iraqi Newspaper
In a message of clearly mixed content, the US proconsul in Iraq, Paul Bremer, has shut down a newspaper in the name of democracy. A Shi'ite radical cleric named Muqtada al-Sadr operated, or had operated on his behalf, Al Hawza, which was an anti-US voice that often claimed the most outrageous pile of non-sense was, in fact, the truth. It was an odious and stupid publication. That does not mean it should have been closed, unless one is to conclude that the occupation has been botched from day one.
The Bush administration has decided that the purpose of conquering Iraq was not about weapons of mass destruction after all, but rather the creation of a vibrant, freedom-loving democracy on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. That being the case, one expected freedom of assembly, worship and the press, the right to petition the government for redress of grievances, and the right to say that the US occupation was evil, wrong and against the interests of the Iraqi people.
Somewhere along the line, Proconsul Bremer decided that a more soviet-style democracy suited him. A free press that supported him, protests in favor of the occupation, the right to thank the government for its benevolence, these were the things that he meant by Iraqi freedom. Since Al Hawza didn't fit that scheme, the paper will not appear for 60-days because. As a media-liaison explained, Al Hawza "was stirring up a lot of hate. It was making people think we [the Americans] were out to get them." Ironically, were the same paper printed in Washington, DC, it would be open and operating today.
Of course, there is a legitimate defense for the proconsul's action -- in an occupied country, papers that criticize the occupying power cause trouble for the occupier. It is difficult to imagine a German or Japanese paper in 1946 bitching about the GIs who were there. Of course, the US Army was in actual control of those territories and was going to create a democratic system and then turn it over to the locals. In present-day Iraq, people with little understanding of democracy (as the US defines the term) will get a country that no one really controls at the end of June to run as they please.
The lack of a day-after plan becomes more and more clear as each day passes. Proconsul Bremer's attack on a free press is the most obvious example. In Vietnam, the logic took years, but eventually the US destroyed the village to save the village. In Iraq, the grand poobah is silencing the press in the name of democracy and that mindset took only a year to evolve. The Americans certainly aren't the Romans when it comes to running an empire, but they look less and less like Americans as well. Iraq would be better served by the Legions.
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