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| Iyad Allawi was very close to Saddam. |
Much
has been made in recent days of the “new” Iraqi government
and words like “sovereignty,” “full sovereignty,” and
“free Iraqi people” have been thrown around rather
frequently.
On
Tuesday, the
UK
ambassador to the UN described the unanimous UN resolution on
Iraq
as a historic decision on a historic day that sees a sovereign
Iraq.
With
the deluge of information on the June 30 deadline for handing
over the reigns of governance to Iraqis quickly approaching, it
is easy to be confused and get drawn into all the hoopla of
Iraqi legitimacy.
In
recent days, we have seen US Secretary of State Colin Powell and
the now-disgraced National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice
come out prancing and dancing like cheerleaders for the 49ers.
One
could be forgiven for thinking the
Iraq
plan has gone rather well.
Nothing
could be farther from the truth.
The
track record is pretty abysmal, particularly when it comes to
hiring foreign-trained, foreign-influenced, and foreign-financed
Iraqi stooges to take senior positions in the new interim
government in
Iraq.
There
are no more Iraqis left in
Iraq
, is the message most are getting.
At
least not the contemplating, enunciating, and mechanically adept
kind. That’s why the troubled film company Coalition
Provisional Authority productions and its affiliate the Iraqi
Governing Council have pooled their resources for a blockbuster
that many
believe
may not do well at the box office: Iraqi Government 2004.
And the stars are all imported from various locales like the
UK
, US and
Canada
, because they can really act.
Indigenous
Iraqis can’t act.
Come
Oscar time, the Academy Awards will seem like a pipe dream for
this new film, which is yet to be played at Arab cinemas near
you, or us, or whatever.
Humor
aside, the political situation in Iraq is going from dire to
hysterical, from depressing to convoluted, and from unrealistic
to the banal bizarre.
“I
want YOU!” says the advert calling on members of
Iraq
’s educated and political elite to chip in and form the new
Iraqi government.
There
are no more Iraqis left in
Iraq
, is the message most are getting.
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So,
the call goes out to former Ba’thists, Saddam’s thugs,
crooked businessmen, senile clergymen and the ragtag non-Arab
militia who support them.
A
handbook “How to Become a Senior Iraqi Leader” is put out by
the NSA, CIA, FBI, MI5, MI6, Pentagon, and the State Department,
and distributed to
Iraq
’s future leaders.
Step
1: Spend more than a minimum of 25 years as an Iraqi exile. When
you publicly decry Iraqi torture and publicly declare you want
to bring Saddam down, we will erase your bloody, tainted, and
horrible track record. No one will know you raped and plundered
as a former Saddam lackey.
Iyad
Allawi is now considered the prime minister of the “new” and
interim Iraqi government. But consider his history: he was a
Ba’thist from 1961 to 1971, and very close to Saddam—so
close that he walked with a sidearm firing it in the air when he
didn’t get his way. He was the typical Ba’thist brute.
Dr.
Haifa al-Azawi, a California-based gynecologist and
US
citizen who went to school with Allawi, wrote a column on
February 12 in the London-based al-Arab newspaper in
which she questioned Allawi’s moral authority as an Iraqi
leader.
“The
Baath party union leader, who carried a gun on his belt and
frequently brandished it terrorising the medical students, was a
poor student and chose to spend his time standing in the school
courtyard or chasing female students to their homes,” she
wrote.
According
to al-Azawi, while in
England
studying, Allawi “spent his time dealing with assassins, doing
the dirty work for the Iraqi government, until his time was up
and he became their target.”
Step
2: Concoct evidence of Iraqi WMD. Hint: Make it spectacular.
Remember the 45-minute claim which
UK
Prime Minister Tony Blair heralded as the God’s truth? You
know, the one that Iraqi field commanders could within 45
minutes launch a chemical weapons counterstrike? Blair had in
September 2002 claimed that senior Iraqi security officer had
supplied the information to the
UK
government. Since then, that source has not been identified.
The
“source” was actually the fabrication of the Iraqi National
Accord, an opposition party headed by—oh, this is good—none
other than Iyad Allawi. Are you starting to get the picture yet?
The
London-based The Times quoted an Allawi spokesperson in
New York
who asserted in January 2004 that the 45-minute claim was
essentially a “crock of s**t,” indicating that the claim was
indeed defunct and baseless.
Politeness
aside, Allawi lied. His people lied. Thousands have died and
continued to die. And for being a
US
puppet, our man in
Baghdad
is appointed—not elected—prime minister.
Step
3: Wax rhetorical: talk of democracy, pluralism, and Iraqi unity
while you pay US PR firms and lobbying groups tens of thousands
of dollars a month to push your agenda with influential US
Congress members and high-ranking officials in the Pentagon.
It is a testament to Iraqi sovereignty that jockeying for power occurs in the hallways of the Pentagon and State Department.
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In
January 2003, the Associated Press (AP) reported that Allawi had
been paying prominent
Washington
lobbyists and
New York
publicists more than $300,000 to help him contact policy makers
and journalists.
Nick
Theros, a non-Iraqi advisor to Allawi, told AP in January that
Allawi learned during his years in exile the importance of
conveying his message to US leaders, especially while they
remain the occupying power in
Iraq.
“The
real power is held by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. He’s a Shia
who once worked for Saddam Hussein, then turned against the
Baathist regime and founded a group that had
U.S.
support for a bid to topple Saddam through terror bombings.
Today Allawi calls terror attacks ‘cowardly and
traitorous,’” said a recent Toronto Star editorial.
It
is a poignant testament to Iraqi sovereignty that jockeying for
power occurs in the hallways of the Pentagon and State
Department.
The
situation in
Iraq
is a farce and is making a mockery of the UN. Consider: a
US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council appoints a majority of its
members into the “new transitional government” who are to
decide on matters of a permanent Iraqi constitution and oversee
the transition to free elections in January 2005.
“As
yet, [appointed Iraqi President Ghazi] al-Yawir and Allawi have
scant legitimacy. They were selected, not elected, by
Iraq
’s discredited outgoing council, itself installed by the
U.S.
,” the Toronto Star editorial says.
Sovereign
and secure
Iraq? Keep dreaming.
Since
the announcement of the transitional government, more than 87
Iraqis have been killed in violence ranging from assassinations
to car bombings to random shootings.
And
then there are the political declarations; both al-Yawir and
Allawi have said they want a majority of Ba’thists reinstated
in their jobs. Try convincing the Shi’ite clerics of that one,
particularly when CPA head L. Paul Bremer banned Shi’ite
cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr—head of the Mahdi Army—from political
activity for the next three years. Indeed, Al-Sadr is disallowed
from standing in the upcoming January 2005 elections.
Talk
about clearing the playing field.
Moving
north, the Kurds are perplexed and fuming over the text of the
recent UN resolution, which did not recognize Kurdish autonomy
while endorsing Iraqi sovereignty.
Kurdish
leaders Mustafa Barazani and Jalal Talabani threatened to pull
out of the transitional government, prompting Allawi into
11th-hour diplomacy with the his former allies.
Chaos?
Just the tip of the iceberg.
Firas
Al-Atraqchi is a Canadian journalist of Iraqi heritage.
Holding an MA in Journalism and Mass Communication, he has
eleven years of experience covering
Middle East
issues, oil and gas markets, and the telecom industry. You can
reach him at firascape@hotmail.com.
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