Naomi Klein has written an astonishing assessment of America’s Iraq boondoggle one year in for The Nation, entitled “Mutiny in Iraq.” Klein asks who will follow Bush off the cliff and who will refuse to jump, followed by a sequence of answers smartly outlining the incidents of desertion that have come to define not a quagmire but a precipice.
“Waves of soldiers, workers and politicians under the command of the U.S. occupation authority are suddenly refusing to follow orders and abandoning their posts.”
U.S. “allies,” one by one are withdrawing troops on an almost daily basis and the Iraqi army is refusing to fight in Falluja, instead donating their weapons to resistance fighters in the South.
“By late April, Maj. Gen. Martin Dempsey, commander of the 1st Armored Division, was reporting that ‘about 40 percent [of Iraqi security officers] walked off the job because of intimidation. And about 10 percent actually worked against us.’”
Klein reports that it’s even worse in the private sector. Fully half of the Iraqis working in the secured “green zone” are not showing up for their jobs. Bechtel has admitted that it can no longer work in the country’s “hot spots” and General Electric has stopped work on key power stations, just in time for the summer heat.
Worse still is the political front, according to Klein’s appraisal.
“On the political front, the idea that the United States could bring genuine democracy to Iraq is now irredeemably discredited: Too many relatives of Iraqi Governing Council members have landed plum jobs and rigged contracts, too many groups demanding direct elections have been suppressed, too many newspapers have been closed down and too many Arab journalists have been murdered while trying to do their job. The most recent casualties were two employees of Al Iraqiya television, shot dead by US soldiers while filming a checkpoint in Samarra. Ironically, Al Iraqiya is the US-controlled propaganda network that was supposed to weaken the power of Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, both of which have also lost reporters to US guns and rockets over the past year.”
As everyone except the U.S. turns to the United Nations to resolve the situation, the United Nations has deferred to the U.S. on every crucial issue from direct elections to failing to refuse to ratify the interim constitution to refusing to replace the U.S. military occupation force with regional peacekeepers.
Klein asserts that the UN’s re-entry in Iraq is that of a “glorified U.S. subcontractor, the political arm of the continued U.S. occupation.” When the 30 June hand-over takes place, if it takes place, the U.S. will retain “security” control over the country and its army, the reconstruction funds, and the installed government will be required to enforce the U.S. occupation orders.
The United Nations’ redemption—according to Klein—is straightforward, if not simple, forcing “Washington to hand over real power-ultimately to Iraqis but first to a multilateral coalition that did not participate in the invasion and occupation and would have the credibility to oversee direct elections. This could work, but only through a process that fiercely protects Iraq’s sovereignty. That means:
- Ditch the interim constitution.
- Put the money in trust.
- De-Chalabify Iraq.
- Demand the withdrawal of U.S. troops.”
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