An Iraqi Interm Deception

Last week during our election day the US conducted a paper transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi government appointed by Americans. The "hand-over" was conducted two days early to avoid disruption by insurgent violence against the occupation forces.

What bothered me then, and continues to bother me now is how the illusion of power being given to Iraqis was covered in much of the western broadcast press I've been exposed to.

Reporters from the BBC, the CBC and all the American networks have framed the hand-over as a return of sovereignty to Iraqis, when that could not be further from the truth.

American forces are still present in large numbers, and after the hand-over, they bombed what they claimed were insurgent targets within civilian areas of Falluja, killing an unidentified number of civilians.

Somewhere in the neighbourhood of 130,000 US troops remain in their Iraqi bunkers, hunkered down behind concrete blocks and razor wire. They aren't there to provide safety, or security for Iraqis. They are simply there to ensure that Iraq remains an American conquered territory, whose puppet government will continue to do the Bush Administration's bidding.

So why all the fanfare and spin over the transfer of power? Well there are a number of reasons.

The most important reason is that the George W. Bush is up for re-election, and his team knew he needed at least one straw to grasp, given the debacle that Iraq has become.

None of Bush Administration's reasons for the war turned out to be true, and none of the projected outcomes of the reconstruction have been realized, so the illusion of returning Iraq to Iraqis had to be made if only for the politics of perception. Preventing the actual truth of increasing American isolation in dealing with Iraq from becoming common belief among Americans was paramount.

By creating a paper illusion of a "hand-over" rubber stamped by the United Nations, the Bush Administration can claim some small measure of legitimacy, and a fictional appearance of international solidarity. In reality, the Americans and to a far lesser extent the British still control Iraq, if continuing descent in to anarchy can be called control.

The other reason the illusory hand-over was so important was because it will enable the Bush Administration to put on an Iraqi costume, and pretend to be a legitimate Iraqi authority. This will allow the Bush Administration to take actions that would otherwise be perceived as direct American aggression, or would be considered unacceptable to the American public.

The whole point of this move isn't to convince Iraqis they have their country back. They know full well the Americans are still in charge. It is instead directed at convincing American voters that the Bush Administration is on its way to disentangling itself from Iraq.

Examples of how the Bush Administration plan to use this tilt in perception already abound, after barely a week of the so-called hand-over having taken place.

After the bombing conducted yesterday by American forces in Falluja, the Iraqi puppet government claimed joint responsibility:

Allawi's government wants to enlist Iraqi opinion against Zarqawi and his ilk, but taking joint responsibility for U.S. air strikes is a risky strategy -- many Iraqis are angered by Zarqawi's tactics, but few are convinced that U.S. raids kill only foreign militants, rather than Iraqi civilians. "A family of 10 killed in their homes -- what's the reason for this? What are they looking for here? What kind of policy is this?" a neighbour at the scene of the Falluja raid said. Pools of congealed blood, piles of clothing and a muddied child's doll lay by a crater gouged by the U.S. bombs. Allawi said in a statement that his government and U.S.-led multinational forces had consulted before the bombing. "Iraqi security forces provided clear and compelling intelligence to conduct a precision strike this evening on a known Zarqawi safe house in southeastern Falluja," he added. (click here for the full article)

Clearly, this is not an effort to win Iraqi hearts and minds, but instead a way to divert US domestic attention from the murder of Iraqi civilians by American forces, by giving it the illusion of official Iraqi participation.

Another example of an action, made behind the mask of the Iraqi puppet government, that would be unacceptable to much of the American public, were it to be made directly by the Bush Administration, is the offer of amnesty for the insurgents.

In an effort to curb the insurgency, Iraq's interim government is planning to announce a package of measures to include a revised public safety law, restoration of the death penalty and a limited amnesty for insurgents, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Monday.(click here for the full article)

While I doubt many, if any, insurgents will take up the offer, the Bush Administration would look weak offering an amnesty to poorly equipped guerrilla forces that have killed American troops. It also wouldn't be good for American forces' morale.

On top of that, any offer of amnesty is unlikely to be taken seriously by insurgents, and instead rightly perceived to be a trap used to identify them should they come forward, and make them targets of the Americans or their Iraqi proxies.

But putting all these maneuverings aside for the moment, because they are simply Machiavellian attempts at public manipulation on the part of the Bush Administration, it is important to come back to the role of the press.

Other than a few centre-left columnists in the mainstream Canadian and British press, such as the Globe and Mail's Rick Salutin, and the Independent's Robert Fisk, and the alternative internet press such as Warblogging.com, the lack of analysis from the mainstream press, particularly the broadcast press, is appalling.

While I expect little from neo-conservative rags like the National Post, who's rah, rah editorial in Saturday's July 3rd Post was laughable in its misrepresentation of the facts on the ground in Iraq; I expect far better from public broadcasters like the BBC, and the CBC.

But it would seem that the desire to create a positive perception of the situation in Iraq, no matter how at odds it is with reality, is something the western press and even western powers seem intent on manufacturing.

How long before reality comes back to bite them in the ass? How long before the fiction of the Iraqi interm government begins to collapse under the repeated hammering of the insurgency? Well, the Bush Administration is hoping their band-aids and bailing wire hold things together at least until after the November elections. But I wouldn't bet on it.