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THE ROVING EYE
It's all about
the Iraqi people
By Pepe Escobar
"It's all about the Iraqi people," said US
Secretary of State Colin Powell. Indeed. So what does
the new United States-proposed and United
Nations-adopted (by 15-0) resolution really mean for
millions of distressed Iraqis? The verdict is not in New
York; it will be handed out in the next few days and
months in the streets of Baghdad, Fallujah, Tikrit,
Najaf.
The UN Security Council on Thursday
adopted a resolution aimed at getting troops and cash
for Iraq, asking nations to aid reconstruction. It also
sets up a multinational force, under US leadership, to
give political cover to nations reluctant to serve under
the occupation and calls on Iraqi leaders to draw up a
plan for a new constitution and elections by December
15.
Meanwhile, there are no new facts on the
(embattled) ground. The Coalition Provisional Authority
(CPA) still controls Iraq out of its former Saddam
Hussein palace-turned-bunker. The crucial transfer of
sovereignty and government back to the much-lauded
"Iraqi people" will happen "as soon as practicable",
which is meaningless diplomatic rhetoric. The UN is
promised a bigger role in the arduous political and
economic reconstruction process, but only "as
circumstances permit" - more meaningless diplomatic
rhetoric.
There's no clear, emphatic timetable
for the transfer of power - the key demand of France,
Germany and Russia. There's no broader role for the UN.
There's only the request for the American-appointed
Iraqi Governing Council to organize its own timetable in
the next two months leading to a new constitution and
general elections. The consequence is that there will be
no "substantial pledges" in next week's Madrid donors'
conference, and no additional troops from France,
Germany, Russia and crucially, Pakistan.
The key
words at the UN were not part of the resolution itself -
debated for almost two months. The key words came from
the ambassadors of France, Germany, Russia, China,
Pakistan and Syria. Even though the US blocked a UN
resolution that would condemn the recent Israeli bombing
raid near Damascus, and besides the fact that American
sanctions against Syria will be soon implemented, the
Arab republic decided not to confront the US. UN
diplomats tell Asia Times Online that what was struck in
New York was a sort of pact of non-aggression.
Essentially, all the opponents of the American war and
occupation decided to buy the Americans some more time
to check whether the new White House and Pentagon
tactics actually improve the situation on the ground.
And that's the end of it.
For the moment the
Bush administration is spinning what it considers a
major diplomatic victory. But as Iraqis - especially in
the Sunni triangle - made it very clear to this
correspondent last month, such a tame resolution will be
read as no more than the UN legitimizing the American
occupation, and empowering the interim Governing Council
that is widely considered as an "imported government".
The "multinational force" - a new designation for what
is essentially viewed by Iraqis as the American army -
will remain any way under American command.
Essam Khaffagi, director of Iraq's human
resources observatory and recently resigned from the
American-appointed Iraqi Reconstruction and Development
Council, dismisses the notion that the neo-conservative
ideologues who heavily pushed for the war on Iraq dream
of a more democratic Middle East.
Drawing from
first-hand experience, he says what the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) wants for Iraq is a "stable
totalitarian regime". "The CIA believes that democracy
would bring in anti-US powers, something which is not
desired by Washington." This is the same "American
Saddam" syndrome widely debated in the Sunni triangle: a
majority of Iraqis believe the Americans want a new
Saddam, without the gruesome bits.
Khaffagi, one
of 140 Iraqi experts handpicked by the White House to
help the CPA, also says that his sources confirmed the
CIA - whose hotel, the Baghdad, was attacked by the
resistance last week - is in very close touch with top
Ba'ath Party officials. This means the official American
de-Ba'athification campaign is in fact a sham.
As President George W Bush will be in Thailand
this weekend for the APEC summit, he will likely have a
word of praise for his Thai hosts. Nearly 450 Thai
troops - including 250 engineers - are already in
Karbala. The Thais are visiting villages, accompanied by
Thai army nurses and interpreters, explaining why they
are there and asking what kind of help the locals need.
If the Americans adopted this approach they would have a
shot on winning hearts and minds.
As for Turkish
troops - even if they go to Iraq as a "friendly factor
of stabilization", in the words of a Turkish diplomat,
they won't be welcomed. The recent suicide attack
against the Turkish embassy in Baghdad was greeted with
jubilation and dancing in the streets. The whole
country, and not only the Kurds, is unanimously against
Washington and Ankara. The "imported government", as
unrepresentative as it is, at least has pointed to a red
light: no neighboring country (Saudi Arabia, Iran,
Jordan, Kuwait, Syria and Turkey) must be directly
involved in the peace and reconstruction process in Iraq
because they all have their hidden agendas. The problem
is, Washington doesn't listen: Jordan has been
authorized to train 35,000 new Iraqi policemen, and
might also send troops.
The new ruler of Iraq is
not proconsul L Paul Bremer in Baghdad any more, but
proconsul Condie in Washington. National Security
Adviser Condoleezza Rice's Iraq Stabilization Group is
now officially to blame for anything related to the
enduring quagmire. But even with Rice and a new UN
resolution there are no guarantees that the Bush
administration will be spared from the quagmire -
because it still refuses a crucial role to the UN and it
still refuses to spell out a timetable for the return of
full sovereignty.
Even if there is some
improvement in Iraq in the weeks to come, the really big
test will be in January - when the CPA plans to fully
dismantle the state food distribution system, which for
years supported every Iraqi with free rations of flour,
rice, cooking oil, tea and sugar. The UN itself has
portrayed it as the world's most efficient food network
- and the main reason why there has not been mass hunger
in Iraq. For the CPA, though, this is some kind of evil
socialist anachronism. Some Iraqis are desperately
trying to impart to Americans that large swathes of the
Ba'athist bureaucracy really worked, while fearing that
Iraq's national history is being replaced with another
narrative, spun by foreigners, without the Iraqi
people's consent.
Graffiti on the walls of an
army building in Baghdad reveals the anger in stark
detail: "The Iraqi faith in Saddam is burning the hearts
of the Americans and British." People talk of Saddam
sightings almost every day, and not only in Baghdad.
Saddam's security services are back in action -
including the head of the Mukhabarat himself, Tahir
Jalil Haboosh, now working for the Americans.
Apparatchicks like former information ministry officials
now work for Fox News. The cumulative effect is of
course the "American Saddam" syndrome.
Popular
anger against what is considered American arrogance,
lack of cultural respect and heavy-handed tactics will
not be extinguished by a UN resolution. AK-47s, RPGs,
hand grenades and roadside bombings are giving way to
elaborate suicide bombings against American targets. As
Asia Times Online has reported, the bulk of the
resistance is not composed of "Ba'ath party remnants",
but nationalists who want an independent and secure Iraq
ruled by Iraqis. Committees of religious leaders are
functioning as command centers. The aspirations of the
different layers of the resistance may be incompatible,
but now they are all fighting together against a common
enemy: the occupying forces.
(Copyright 2003
Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact content@atimes.com for
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