April 12, 2004
NEW YORK — How the many intelligent people in the Bush Administration can continue to make so many enormous blunders astounds and dismays. Two examples:
Australia is facing a tight electoral race between conservative John Howard, who eagerly sent troops to Iraq, and Labor Party challenger, Mark Latham, who, like Spain's new prime minister, vows to bring his nation's troops home from Iraq. A majority of Australians oppose the Iraq War.
US ambassador Tom Schieffer, a Texas pal of George Bush, warned Australians of `serious consequences' if they elect Latham.
Now, Australians love America, but any worldly person knows, do not threaten Aussies. They will come out swinging. Schieffer should be fired.
Far worse, however, is the ham-handed US Iraq Proconsul, Paul Bremer. A neo-conservative ideologue, Bremer was responsible for two of the Bush Administration's most disastrous mistakes in Iraq: disbanding Iraq's Army, and firing tens of thousands of government bureaucrats because they were Ba'ath party members.
Any junior imperialist knows the first thing you do when you conquer someone's country is to buy the loyalty of its existing armed forces, government and police. Otherwise you will have armies of angry, unemployed potential rebels roaming the streets — Iraq being Exhibit A.
Bremer's third horrible blunder came this week. The US Proconsul, who is supposedly bringing the light of democracy to Iraq, shut down a tiny, 10,000 circulation Shia newspaper and arrested its editor for `spreading anti-American views' and calling Bremer rude names. The paper's publisher was firebrand Shia mullah Muqtada el-Sadr, who has been calling on Iraqis to resist US occupation.
Bremer turned Sadr, a little-respected junior cleric with a limited following, into an overnight hero to restive Shias, and a new American villain.
Bremer's latest imbecility caused Iraq's Shia majority, which was simmering with anti-American passions, to explode into violence. Washington and US forces were caught totally by surprise, though warnings were aplenty. This writer, for example, said on CNN's Paula Zahn show — exactly three days before the explosion of Shia rage — `the Shia and the US are on a collision course…their younger mullahs are calling for armed resistance…what we've seen so far(Sunni resistance) is only a foretaste of the violence to come.'
For months, Iraq's Shia have heeded calls for patience from their spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. He tried to get Washington to agree to genuine democratic elections in January, 2005. But it's painfully clear the US will not allow Iraq's Shia majority(60%) to gain real political power, and intends to keep troops based there indefinitely.
The Bush Administration's definition of `democracy' in Iraq means a puppet regime that goes through the motions of democracy, `invites' US troops to stay on, permits US business to exploit Iraq's oil riches, and cooperates with Israel.
An interesting side note: Reza Pahlavi, pretender to Iran's throne, opined to me recently in Washington that Iraq's Ayatollah Sistani actually outranks all of Iran's clergy, including leader, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei, and Iraq's holy city of Najaf outranks Iran's theological center, Qum.
Revelations of Washington's plans to colonize Iraq, and Israel's assassination of the Palestinian leader, Sheik Yassin, intensified pent-up Shia fury. Americans can thank Bremer and his bosses in the White House for opening this two-front war in Iraq and driving the Shia and Sunnis together.
The savage punishment of the rebellious city of Falluja — over 300 Iraqis killed — after the brutal killing of four US mercenaries there sharply recalls Israel's ravaging of the rebellious West Bank town of Jenin.
As this column predicted a year ago, `liberated' Iraq has become a copy of the strife-torn Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza — writ large. Israeli military and intelligence experts are now advising US operations in Iraq. All who oppose US occupation are branded `terrorists.'
Iraq is not going to be `liberated' or taught democracy by means of US heavy tanks and helicopter gunships. Quite the contrary, what we have seen this week is the sowing by heavy-handed US occupation forces of a whole new crop of terrorist dragon's teeth in the bloodstained soil of Iraq.
The only bright note for the Bush White House: if it can't kill Osama bin Laden in time for November elections, then maybe pesky Mullah Muqtada will do.
Foreign Correspondent
