"Full Sovereignty for Iraq on June 30"

It doesn't matter one iota whether we consider the Iraqi government the puppet of the US. The important perceptions belongs to the Iraqis and other Muslim/Arab citizens in the region.

Drats. Hadn't heard of Basra.
<dejected>

Bremer didn't even pee on his way to the airport. I'm amazed he survived his stay. Good luck to Negroponte, and all. They are surely brave.

I watched a ride-with by Anderson Cooper(CNN) with the Minister of Energy. He said his wife is 'pissed' that he accepted the position. But, he was born in Iraq, and fled when family members were murdered by Saddam. He sees it as an honor and a privilege to have a part in helping his country become a free, Democratic nation. I was quite humbled by his sentiments and bravery.

I'm under no illusion The Handover might have meant an end to the violence; I fear, even, that we may yet not have seen the worst of it. One thing I do anticipate is the imposition, at least in certain specific locales, if not regionally or nationally, of martial law and attendant draconian repression of insurgent elements. I suspect the Iraqis themselves will be far more severe with their intransigent brethren and associated extranational co-criminals than ever were the forces of The Coalition; we were after peace and stability, these guys are gonna be out for blood revenge and power.

I am noticing a trend both here and talk shows start blaming the iraqi for not being able to do what coalition of the willing has not been able to do for 14 months; secure iraq and bring democracy.

did you all notice how fast breemer got out of there?

What idiot could possibly have started blaming Iraq for anything. Please provide a link to someone who did it here.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Opinion.html

[excerpt translated from Dutch]

nimn

How 'reversible' any decision the new entity might make really is remains a profound question, given the independence of the american forces, the limitations on laws Bremer put into place before leaving, the mandated presence of americans in the important ministries, the ongoing privatization of resources and service activities under (mainly) american corporate control, and anything else which we aren't being informed regarding.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1249701,00.html


Not that the wishes of the Iraqis matter much.

Of course not: they have got their sovereignty and should now keep quiet.

see what happens when I take some time off? Iraq gains sovereignty (spoiling all the terrorist plans I hope!)

You can relax and return to the water park, McG. Sovereignty is as yet quite unarrived.

It's still what everybody calls an "occupation" with a puppet regime until the Iraqi's really select their own political leaders.

Escape From the Green Zone
July 1, 2004
By MAUREEN DOWD

You'd think that President Bush would have learned by now to keep those snappy aphorisms to himself.

Gonna get Osama dead or alive.
Or neither.

Gonna smoke
Osama out of his cave.
When exactly?

Bring 'em on.
Please don't.

Mission Accomplished.
Not.

Let freedom reign.
Couldn't Karl Rove and his minions at least get that
"ad-lib" right about freedom ringing?

Not gonna cut and run.
We can't cut, but we certainly ran.


Paul Bremer scuttled out of Baghdad so fast, he didn't even wait for the new ambassador, John Negroponte, to arrive so he could pass along some safety tips. Mr. Negroponte, assuming the most perilous diplomatic post in the world, is going to need all the security advice he can get if Iraq
keeps slouching toward Islamic fundamentalism and rampant terrorism.

The administration went from Shock and Awe to Sneak and Shirk. Gotta run, guys - keep chins up and heads down. The Bush crowd pretended the country was free and able to stand on its own, even as the odd manner in which Mr. Bremer
scooted away showed that it wasn't. The president acted as if Iraq was in control, but our forces can't come home because Iraq's still out of control.

As Paul Bremer was sneaking out, Ahmad Chalabi, the swindler who has bilked America out of millions, was sneaking in. He was smiling from ear to ear at the swearing-in ceremony for the new prime minister, Iyad Allawi (a ceremony so secretive that coalition officials confiscated reporters' cellphones to enforce an embargo on
the news for security reasons).

If Americans needed any more confirmation that they're viewed as loathed occupiers, not beloved liberators, it came with the sad little spectacle of a hasty, heavily guarded hand-over that no Iraqi John Trumbell will memorialize in an oil painting of the Declaration of Iraqi Independence.

Dick Cheney and the neocons had once hoped for a grand Independence Day celebration, no doubt, where Saddam's toppled statue once loomed, dreaming of a parade of Iraqi high school pep squads and the Iraqi Olympic bobsled team;
sky boxes for Halliburton executives; grateful Iraqis, cheering and crying; President Bush making a surprise drop-in from the NATO summit meeting in nearby Turkey, with "Mission Accomplished" pen sets for the new government; Katie, Matt and Diane beaming it back to proud Americans.

Instead, there was no real transfer of power because there was no power to transfer. It was a virtual transfer, just the way the rationale for war was virtual and the shift of Saddam's custody to Iraq is virtual. The Bush team is not going to trust Iraqi security to hang onto Saddam because it doesn't even know yet whether Iraqi security can hang onto the country. With rumblings in Iraq that a strongman may be needed to tamp down the anarchy, what if the old Baathist crowd rushed to crown Saddam, instead of his foes storming the prison to "hack him to pieces," as Mr. Bremer
speculated on the "Today" show?

Mr. Bremer's escape from the Green Zone was uncomfortably reminiscent of the last days of Saigon. No one was hanging onto the skids of helicopters, but the mood was furtive, not festive. American troops are still trapped in Iraq and
being killed there, and 5,600 ex-soldiers are being
involuntarily recalled in America's undeclared draft.

The White House pretended that the sovereignty was real.
The administration that is loath to share information and presidential papers - even to help the 9/11 investigation find ways to make the country more secure - quickly turned over a photo of Mr. Bush's handwritten "Let freedom reign!"
comment on Condi Rice's note to him announcing the transfer.

But it rings - or reigns - hollow in a week when Sandra Day O'Connor and the Supremes - except the Bush family fixer Clarence Thomas - slapped the commander in chief for torturing without a license. "A state of war is not a blank check for the president," the court ruled.

Still, Mr. Bremer put the best foot forward. Noting that the ex-proconsul was standing on the White House lawn still in the boots he wore with suits in Iraq, Charlie Gibson of ABC asked the escapee how he felt.

"Well, it's like having a rather large weight lifted off my shoulders," he said. "I'm delighted to be back."

If only our soldiers could say the same.


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/01/opinion/01DOWD.html?ex=1089680669&ei=1&en=e5ea07b48a327a54

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

I tried to look for words to the effect people here are expecting the Iraqi's to "step up to the plate" and defend themselves. However, I could not so I retract it as a false statement.

("retract" that is what they say when the have take back something in a newspaper or something, isn't it?)

Anyway, I have just heard on the news, in fact it was on crossfire either the very day that the handover happened or a day or two after that a guy from the "right" said that one good thing about the turnover was that if the Iraqi's are in charge then people can't blame the US for the security mess. It was the left host (I forgot his name, not Novak but the guy on the other side)who responded by saying that something like, "how can we expect the Iraqi's to do what we haven't been able to do with all our resources for the past 14 months since the invasion?"

Sorry for the scanty details I should have not said anything but sometimes I just (most of the time)I just write on the fly.

CI

I think I can guess the reason for the replacement for "ring" for "reign".

Condi and all of them are real religious, I don't know if you read clark's book, but there was an incident in there where Bush missed church coming back from somewhre in Air force one so they held a service for Bush up in the air. Condi led the service and Karen Hughes sang the songs. Reign is usually asscoiated with the time that king and queens are alive and in power. But in the Bible it is associated mostly with Jesus and his reign either in heaven or as some believe here on earth at the second coming.

Kinda puts condi little note to bush in a whole new light don't it?

And that is the strategy exactly. US power and control have been only minimally reduced, suggestions otherwise definitely notwithstanding.

What they (the administration) will now attempt to do is to distance themselves from everything in Iraq ("The Iraqis are in charge, it is their responsibility to pull themselves up" etc).

They will also attempt to fill up the news with other things, leaving as little room as possible for Iraq coverage.

such as "whitehouse announces there's hamburger all over the highway in Mystic Connecticut" or even "big light in sky frightens minorities in the east"

And I thought, hamburger was celebrating Canada Day today at home!

revel, They're going to leave everything up to god to fix now. They've done their duty to create the mess. I don't think miracles are gonna happen, but they'll keep praying anywhos, and the christian right will follow right along.