US Gives Iraq Back, Sort of

The US handed over to an Iraqi government something that was dressed up as sovereignty in a surprise move two days earlier than scheduled. The obvious reason was to avoid the disruption of the transfer ceremony by terrorists and insurgents who freely operate in Iraq. It is difficult to find a more convincing proof that the occupation of Iraq has failed.

As proconsul Paul Bremer handed over to President Ghazi Al-Yawer, the new satrap, it was clear that the standards that the Americans had set for their policy in Iraq were ignored. A secure, stable and democratic Iraq is a laudable objective, and painfully, Iraq is none of those. Indeed, the violence has escalated, and despite the wishes of the White House, there is no reason for those committing the violence to stop merely because of a secret ceremony held behind barbed wire. Moreover, the new government is not any more democratic than the Iraqi Governing Council was. A year after the "liberation" of Iraq, there has been no national election, and there isn't one scheduled for months.

More than a year on, and there is still no Iraqi force (save possibly the Kurds in their lands and the odd Shi'ite militia) capable of keeping order. Sovereignty, as understood by international lawyers, is the monopoly of force within a territory (sometimes this is dressed up with the term "legitimate force"). That still lies with the coalition. Moreover, the efforts by Mr. Bush to get his NATO allies to support his efforts to get such a force trained has been rebuffed. For example, France and Germany are willing to train Iraqis, but not in Iraq. That is hardly convenient, nor is it realistic. Conditions in Europe aren't comparable to the difficult conditions in Iraq (save perhaps in certain of the more Arabic suburbs of Paris), so it is doubtful that training will be that valuable for deployment in Further Arabia, where the power isn't on round the clock yet.

Meanwhile, Wassef Ali Hassoun has been taken hostage in Iraq -- he's a United States Marine, whose family lives in Utah. Corporal Hassoun faces beheading within a couple of days if certain demands are not met. In a similar situation are three Turks and a Pakistani fellow. By the looks of things, the events of Monday morning changed absolutely nothing for them. And if that is the case, nothing really changed for anyone else either. All that remains is for the new Iraqi governing mob to declare martial law and everything will be back to normal.


© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.


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