So the Occupation has ended in a secret ceremony! What a bathetic joke. I was tempted to write ‘So that is how the Occupation ends, not with a bang but a whimper.’ Except of course that the Occupation has not ended and there will certainly be a lot of bangs within the next day or two.
I have been watching Idiot Downer babbling on attempting to put a brave face on what is transparently a disaster for the Coalition of the Willing and their Iraqi mates. The plans to fly in Bush from Istanbul to do a repeat of Mission Accom-plished had to be abandoned. Such is the reality of the failed state that America and Britain and Australia have labored to produce.
Allawi is Prime Minister only as long as he hides behind the American Army. Nevertheless the shameless spinmeisters are at work. Despite all the empirical evidence, Burns of the New York Times has just been on the ABC assuring us that we could be surprised by Allawi and that he was a tough guy.
I heard such talk long years ago when Idi Amin took over Uganda. I heard it also when Mobutu took over in the Congo.
Burns and his fellow propagandists hope that the strong man has arrived who will reconstuct Iraq in the West’s image.
Allawi is of course, as an ex-employee of the CIA, very willing indeed. But he only stays in “power” because al Jafaari and al Sistani figure that they can take him out in elections in January. Should he be tempted to strongman his way out of the commitment to elections then all hell will break loose, and the Occupation fiasco will finally be brought to an end.
In the mean time everything that America does makes things worse. And the farce of putting Allawi up front in a panic driven move is yet another instance. Though I suppose it is arguable that the flight of Bremer – one very stupid American – is a step forward.
It ws a relief here amidst all the lies and distortions pumped out by Australian conservatives to read at debka.com, an honest analysis of the crisis. For the Israeli right the “secretive” handover, signaled a defeat for the Americans and a victory for the resistance.
The conclusions of the Deka correspondents are worth quoting in full:-
“An important point to be considered now is this: in what light does the change of the sovereignty handover date present the US president in the Middle East and key nations like Pakistan and Afghanistan where the global war on terror is being fought? And what signals does it send to the Islamic terrorists? According to our sources around the region, it is seen as a loss of ground for US military and political positions in Iraq and the war on terror. America’s enemies will be encouraged to redouble their pressure on US troops and their coalition partners in the hope of putting them to flight. ”
Sooner or later the enormity of the disaster that is Iraq will penetrate even the consciousness of Australians. Then there will be an electoral reckoning with Howard and his fellow sycophants.
regards
Gary