Watch now as the last two remaining justifications for our invasion of Iraq vanish before George W. Bush's eyes. The top three excuses to attack Iraq vaporized long ago: there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction (not even "program related activities"), there was no ability or plans to attack the U.S. (or anyone else for that matter), and there were no connections to al-Queada (actually they were enemies of the Hussein regime). So what's left? Only two: Saddam was a very bad guy and it is America's god given duty to bring freedom and democracy to the long suffering people of Iraq.
But our recently installed Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi has some very different ideas about what freedom and democracy mean ... and he appears to have the support of the Iraqi people. (You'll recall from yesterday's post that our guy Allawi is a former C.I.A. operative who, saying that he needed to set an example so that the police would feel more confident in carrying out their duties, personally murdered six suspected insurgents in public the week before we turned power over to him.)
It turns that in the "new Iraq" (the one that we created), the new government (the one to which we just recently turned over power) is busy conducting random searches, seizing private property, closing facilities, banning public meetings, eavesdropping on citizens, and enforcing curfews at the point of a gun — just like the police state from which George W. Bush told us American was liberating them — at the same time as the small and un-elected (remember, we appointed them) Baghdad leadership is busy establishing a number of new security agencies, each with a name and marching orders eerily reminiscent of dreaded Hussein regime.
Where do the long suffering Iraqi people stand on all of this? If you are among those who really believed that the Iraqis would welcome American invaders with bouquets, then you might also expect that the Iraqi people would now be conducting peaceful demonstrations in opposition to these totalitarian crackdowns, maybe writing a letter or two to the editor, and perhaps calling into their favorite talk radio show. You know, the sorts of things that people in a free and democratic society might do.
But they are not. The Iraqis are welcoming the crackdown. Whatever doubts they may have about who really is in charge, the sight of Iraqi leaders announcing Iraqi solutions after more than 15 chaotic months of lawlessness is winning instant and overwhelming support on the streets of Baghdad.
For a brief moment in the spring of 2003, as George W. Bush was busy landing on an aircraft carrier anchored in San Diego and declaring "mission accomplished," the Iraqi people might have believed that their lives were about to improve. After all, they'd just witnessed first-hand the awesome power of the American "Shock and Awe" campaign, and surely a country that is capable of overthrowing Saddam Hussein with laser guided pinpoint bombing must also have the resources and the technology to restore order and bring nearly instant affluence and prosperity to each Iraqi family.
But that didn't happen and Iraqis today are grimly resigned to buy into anyone who will restore law and order. Never mind freedom and democracy, whatever that is. Just make it so that I can walk the streets in broad daylight without worrying about getting blown-up. If it takes the re-entry of some former Baathist party members, the re-appointment of Saddam era security agents, and the eventual revival of Saddam's former army commanders to bring it about, the average Iraqi won't object. A state of order, which is how Iraqis now remember their country before the American invasion, is what they now crave most.
Thanks to the Bush administration, the Iraqi people have seen enough of American freedom and democracy to know that they don't like it.
Toronto Star: "Here you go. Here's Iraq. Take it"
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