Iraq 102

"Victor and vanquished never unite in substantial agreement."
Once again our Roman friend Tacitus gives us a perfect quote to start our second lesson about Iraq. We will now discuss where the Bush administration has made mistakes, or at least a short survey of the ones I see as important. Initially it seemed as though things might go rather smoothly. The majority of the Iraqi Army decided it wasn't a good idea to resist the juggernaut that is the US War Machine and at least 80% (non-sunnis) of the population was glade to see Saddam be deposed. Bush even made an excellent choice for a temporary administrator in Jay Garner. Jay Garner was a widely respected individual in the region because of his work with the Kurds after the first Gulf War and his generally honorable behavior towards Muslims. Unfortunately for everyone involved Mr. Garner actually thought his job was to ensure peace and help the Iraqis elect a new government. Consequently he had plans to do just that, such as pulling all US forces out of Iraqi cities as soon as possible while leaving civil authority intact, an election within 90 days, and insuring that no Iraqi assets would be sold off until the new Iraqi government could decide for itself what to do. For such noble and efficient efforts team Bush removed him after only two months and installed a political hack and soulless corporate hitman in his place, Paul Bremer. His first act was to declare it impossible to have elections that year, followed by the complete and utter rape of the Iraqi economy while disregarding any of the most basic needs of the population (providing clean water, medical needs, electricity etc.). He also refused to allow US troops to pull back to desert basses to avoid antagonizing the locals and starting an insurgency. He set up the Coalition Provisional Authority and its successor the Iraqi Interim Government for the purpose of making Iraq the first country to try all of Globalizations economic plans at once. Tariffs were completely removed flooding the market with goods and destroying virtually all local industry. All the corporations that where in bed with Bush Inc. were essentially put in charge of the privitization of Iraq's state owned utilities, not to mention the massive windfall from reconstruction and security contracts. Another very important mistake was using ethnic forces to perform military/policing operations in areas that had traditionally been occupied by opposing groups. By doing this they fanned the flames of ethnic and religious hatred into the inferno that is modern day Iraq. However, the largest mistake that I saw made by far was the disillusion of virtually every single civil post in the country and not to mention the incredibly stupid choice to disband the Iraqi army. Despite many of the flaws of the Saddam era it's organization of civil society wasn't one of them and punishing all those people that made that society work was downright maliciously idiotic. Now all these faux pas were pretty effectively hidden from the American public due to the fact that most of us here in the states are spoon fed our news through one of a few media sources that is essentially a very well trained pet of the executive branch. Those living in South-West Asia however see these mistakes very clearly, as the oppressed and abused usually do. Now all the mistakes I have mentioned here are only mistakes if the initial goal was to create a just and stable Iraq that could take its place among the nations of the world standing proudly on its own two feet. It is my contention however that that wasn't ever the goal at all and just a publicity stunt to justify something far more sinister. So stay tuned for the next lesson in which I will explain why we attacked Iraq in the first place and why we are still there making a mess of things today...