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Published: January 26, 2005 Author:
Linda S. Heard |
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For Education and Discussion Only. Not
for Commercial Use. |
Source: Iraqi Election 'A Done Deal';
Villagers Forced To Vote For Allawi To Keep Food Rations
Gulf News
| January 26 2005
Forgive me if I cannot whip up too much
excitement over the coming Iraqi elections. Apart from my innate
scepticism as to US intentions after its pretexts for going to war were
blown apart, the words of an Iraqi diplomat who insisted he was a close
friend of Eyad Allawi add fuel to the embers.
"The outcome of the
elections is more or less a done deal," he told me. "Allawi is set to
continue."
I took this statement with a fistful of salt until I
read this in last Sunday's Times: "fears of a takeover by Shiite clerics
have prompted speculation that Washington might have been trying to strike
a deal with Al Sistani to keep Allawi as prime minister after the
election".
Tipped to oust Allawi is head of the Supreme Council
for Islamic Revolution in Iraq Abdul-Aziz Al Hakim and he is clamouring
for American troops to go home pronto.
Since Bush has promised the
occupying forces will abide by the wishes of a sovereign Iraqi government,
his call could prove embarrassing.
Let's face it, US troops aren't
about to go anywhere especially since neighbouring Iran features large on
the 2005 pre-emption menu.
We would have to be either na�ve or on
Prozac to believe the Bush administration is poised to walk off into the
sunset sans oil and sans face, leaving an Iraqi government representing
the Shiite majority free to cosy up to the Iranian ayatollahs.
Even if the United States isn't engaged in manipulative hanky
panky, the election is defective from the start.
UN monitors are
understandably scarce on the ground and three or four Sunni provinces
(containing almost half the country's entire population) will be virtually
excluded due to rising levels of violence.
Allawi's attempt
Indeed, heralding the new Iraqi democracy are closed borders and
airport, travel restrictions and curfews, while candidates and the
location of polling stations will remain secret until the last minute.
Allawi's bid already looks suspect after he doled out $100 bills
to reporters hoping for favourable coverage.
The Riverbend girl
blogger refuses to be seduced. She says she found an "Elect Allawi"
pamphlet promising "security and prosperity for occupied Iraq", which
fitted nicely at the bottom of a parakeet's cage.
She complains:
"People in many areas are being told that if they don't vote � the food
and supply rations we are supposed to get monthly will be cut off," and
asks, "what sort of democracy is it when you force people to go vote for
someone or another they don't want?"
The idea that Allawi has a
mega following is frankly laughable. This is a former Baathist who fell
out with Saddam Hussain and forged links with the CIA.
Few had
even heard of him before he replaced Ahmad Chalabi in the Pentagon's
affections. So low has Chalabi sunk that the interim Iraqi Defence
Minister is threatening to hand him over to Jordan where he was convicted
in absentia for embezzlement.
Allawi cheered on the flattening of
Fallujah and supports the American military presence, so it is hardly
likely he would attract a significant popular vote.
Iraqis know
that Allawi perpetuates the lie their country is now a sovereign state.
Clearly aware who his masters are, Allawi's speech before the US
Congress was ridiculed as being designed to aid Bush's re-election and
probably dreamt up by Bush's own speechwriters.
"We are succeeding
in Iraq," he said, before thanking his audience for "your brave vote in
2002 to authorise American men and women to go to war to liberate my
country � ".
No condemnation concerning the use of cluster bombs,
which are regularly responsible for small children losing their limbs. No
condemnation of the use of depleted uranium tank shells responsible for a
prevalence in birth defects and cancers.
No condemnation of the
deaths of up to 100,000 Iraqi civilians and not a word about the torture
and abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
Allawi is no patriot and if
he remains prime minister after the vote, then, as far as I am concerned
it was a sham, a pre-arranged set-up just as the Iraqi diplomat confided
it would be.
The release of an audio tape by the elusive Abu Musab
Al Zarqawi, which announces: "We have declared a fierce war on this evil
principle of democracy and those who follow this wrong ideology" just days
before the election, is strangely reminiscent of that released by the even
more elusive Osama Bin Laden days before the US vote, said to have swayed
voters in Bush's direction.
Fit the profile
"Evil
principle of democracy?" Bush always said that they, the terrorists, hate
democracy. It looks like Zarqawi is only too happy to fit the profile.
If you believe that anyone believes democracy is evil, I've got a
nice Egyptian pyramid I'd like to sell you with a free camel if you
purchase two.
Donald Rumsfeld was quick to acknowledge that this
election will be far from perfect but believes a flawed election is better
than no election.
The trouble is democracy isn't a loaf of bread.
There is no such thing as half democracy. Elections are either
comprehensive, inclusive, free and fair or they are not.
Iraqis
deserve a prosperous, peaceful and democratic Iraq but I doubt this is
possible as long as the occupation forces stay. They have their agenda;
the Iraqi people have theirs and both are mutually exclusive.
A
paper entitled "Rebuilding America's Defences" drawn up by the Project for
a New American Century in 2000 and signed up to by several top members of
the Bush administration suggests US troops need to establish a permanent
foothold in the Gulf, while keeping a low profile.
Once Iraq is
officially stamped a democracy and American soldiers withdraw to a series
of permanent bases or behind the walls of the largest and most fortified
US embassy in the world, the Strauss-cons will have achieved their
objective occupation in democracy's clothing.
Although whether
they will be allowed to get away with this giant con is an entirely
different matter.
Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle
East affairs. She can be contacted at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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