The Baghdad Vichy
Surprise early handover of power in Iraq is sad concession that nothing will change

How pathetic is it that Iraq's new Vichy leaders received "power" in a formal ceremony moved up four days because security could not be guaranteed?

How telling is it that as now-former Viceroy Paul Bremer leaves Iraq, 14 separate, permanent US military bases are under construction, the new "government" has no control over 130,000 foreign troops in its country, and the CIA-friendly new "prime minister," a thuggish former Iraqi intelligence official under Saddam who murdered and car-bombed across Europe in the '60s and '70s, is now threatening to suspend a constitution that didn't exist two months ago?

How pathetic is it that Iyad Allawi can't suspend the constitution and declare martial law, because he doesn't have enough trained military and loyal police to enforce even the most rudimentary version of it? It would be a farce. Just like Allawi himself, who bragged, upon his appointment, of his ties to 16 different Western intelligence agencies (including, doubtless, Israel's Mossad. Now there's a credential to wave around for the masses.)
The fact that Washington now claims to be washing its hands of a land where US soldiers will still die tomorrow -- probably quite a few of them -- is an interesting PR and legal move. Nothing more. It means George Bush can point to a promise improbably kept, and it means his Iraqi puppets now have four months to auction off Iraq's assets to Bush's corporate buddies before their sugar daddy is (hopefully) booted from office.

The one in Washington, that is. There's no telling whether Iyad Allawi will last that long, and not because "Interim" is part of his job title. My Seattle colleague, Maria Tomchick, actually refers to this as the "Interim Interim" government, since it will be replaced next year, if all goes well, by officials selected in interim elections. But an awful lot is likely not to go well in the coming months, starting with the deaths of a few of the senior members of the interim interim government. They, along with collaborationist police, have become prime targets of the Iraqi insurgents.


http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=17203