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11/24/06

Common Dreams: Iraq Disaster Isn’t Coming to an End, it’s Only Just Begun - by Iain Macwhirter


For the complete report in Common Dreams click on this link

Iraq Disaster Isn’t Coming to an End, it’s Only Just Begun - by Iain Macwhirter

Politicians need to convey the impression at all times that they know what they're doing, even when they don't. That's what they're paid for, after all. But every so often the mask of competence slips. They reveal, in a flash, that they simply haven't a clue; that they're winging it, making it up as they go along, hoping no-one will notice.

This moment came yesterday when the government announced that it was "full throttle" to the handover of power to an Iraqi civil administration on June 30. "Six weeks to sovereignty" – that's the message coming from the US-led coalition. We've done the job, now it's time to hand over to the grateful people of free Iraq. All we need to do, it seems, is send a few more troops to train the Iraqi military, stage elections, and then everyone can live happily ever after.

Sounds simple, but this promise of a handover to an Iraqi civil administration was announced less than 24 hours after Izzedin Salim, the head of the Iraqi governing council, was killed by a car bomb in Baghdad. It was announced as US troops besieged the holy city of Kerbala, and on the day Israel continued to defy the civilized world by bulldozing Palestinian homes in Gaza.

In retrospect, this story written on May 19, 2004 was right on target.

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