Keystone Kops Security

9 August 2004



Iraqi Government Suspends Al-Jazeera, Restores Death Penalty

The Bush administration's hope that the American-led occupation of Iraq would lead to a liberal, bourgeois democracy like those of Europe and North America receded two giant steps in the last couple of days. The interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has decided to suspend the news network Al-Jazeera from operating in Iraq for the next month. At the same time, the nation has restored the death penalty. These are both signs that the unrest in Iraq is not getting better.

In the case of Al-Jazeera, the government has said that its broadcasting of videos from militants threatened to decapitate hostages has increased kidnappings and incited violence. Al-Jazeera argues that it is reporting the news. And this is a centuries old argument -- does reporting on violence increase the violence in a society? And does suppressing the reportage stifle democratic efforts? This isn't the first time that Al-Jazeera has been told to get out of a country, and it probably won't be the last. However, it is difficult to believe that the absence of the media will help. After all, CNN wasn't around the Holocaust, while the media was rather well silenced in the Third Reich. One's instincts are to side with Al-Jazeera, biased or not.

As for the return of the death penalty, the point here is not that the death penalty itself marks a regression in human rights -- the Kensington Review supports the death penalty for those who use the apparatus of the state to commit mass murder (and trials are optional, and usually ill-advised). Rather, the issue is the government's perception that the current crisis merits the resurrection of state-approved murder to halt the kidnappings, militia violence and the rest. Harsher measures are not pursued when the forces of "law and order" are winning. Getting tough only happens when the outcome is in doubt.

Moreover, the government needs to have death penalty on the books if it is to try Saddam Hussein. No Iraqi government could survive by slapping him in jail for and waiting for him to die. The parallel with Napoleon has been discussed here before, and Iraq will only be safe when the Great Leader is dead -- sooner rather than later. But that too is a sign of weakness in Baghdad; the former regime still poses a threat.

With Najaf a battlefield again, and the Grand Ayatollah Sistani off in London for heart treatment, it is only a matter of time before the media in the west start describing the situation in Iraq as "civil war." That is what has been going on for over a year, and calling a spade a spade is long overdue.


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


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