MER - Iraq Exploding

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> Can't Blair see that this country is about to explode? Can't Bush? <br> <br>By Robert Fisk in Baghdad <br> <br>The Independent on Sunday (UK) - August 1, 2004 <br> <br> <br>The war is a fraud. I'm not talking about the weapons <br>of mass destruction that didn't exist. Nor the links <br>between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida which didn't exist. <br>Nor all the other lies upon which we went to war. I'm <br>talking about the new lies. <br> <br>For just as, before the war, our governments warned us <br>of threats that did not exist, now they hide from us <br>the threats that do exist. Much of Iraq has fallen <br>outside the control of America's puppet government in <br>Baghdad but we are not told. Hundreds of attacks are <br>made against US troops every month. But unless an <br>American dies, we are not told. This month's death toll <br>of Iraqis in Baghdad alone has now reached 700 - the <br>worst month since the invasion ended. But we are not <br>told. <br> <br>The stage management of this catastrophe in Iraq was <br>all too evident at Saddam Hussein's "trial." Not only <br>did the US military censor the tapes of the event. Not <br>only did they effectively delete all sound of the 11 <br>other defendants. But the Americans led Saddam Hussein <br>to believe - until he reached the courtroom - that he <br>was on his way to his execution. Indeed, when he <br>entered the room he believed that the judge was there <br>to condemn him to death. This, after all, was the way <br>Saddam ran his own state security courts. No wonder he <br>initially looked "disorientated" - CNNs helpful <br>description - because, of course, he was meant to look <br>that way. We had made sure of that. Which is why Saddam <br>asked Judge Juhi: "Are you a lawyer? ..Is this a <br>trial?" And swiftly, as he realised that this really <br>was an initial court hearing - not a preliminary to his <br>own hanging - he quickly adopted an attitude of <br>belligerence. <br> <br>But don't think were going to learn much more about <br>Saddam's future court appearances. Salem Chalabi, the <br>brother of convicted fraudster Ahmad and the man <br>entrusted by the Americans with the tribunal, told the <br>Iraqi press two weeks ago that all media would be <br>excluded from future court hearings. And I can see why. <br>Because if Saddam does a Milosevic, he'll want to talk <br>about the real intelligence and military connections of <br>his regime - which were primarily with the United <br>States. <br> <br>Living in Iraq these past few weeks is a weird as well <br>as dangerous experience. I drive down to Najaf. Highway <br>8 is one of the worst in Iraq. Westerners are murdered <br>there. It is littered with burnt-out police vehicles <br>and American trucks. Every police post for 70 miles has <br>been abandoned. Yet a few hours later, I am sitting in <br>my room in Baghdad watching Tony Blair, grinning in the <br>House of Commons as if he is the hero of a school <br>debating competition; so much for the Butler report. <br> <br>Indeed, watching any Western television station in <br>Baghdad these days is like tuning in to Planet Mars. <br>Doesn't Blair realise that Iraq is about to implode? <br>Doesn't Bush realise this? The American-appointed <br>"government" controls only parts of Baghdad - and even <br>there its ministers and civil servants are car-bombed <br>and assassinated. Baquba, Samara, Kut, Mahmoudiya, <br>Hilla, Fallujah, Ramadi, all are outside government <br>authority. Iyad Allawi, the "Prime Minister," is little <br>more than mayor of Baghdad. "Some journalists," Blair <br>announces, "almost want there to be a disaster in <br>Iraq." He doesn't get it. The disaster exists now. <br> <br>When suicide bombers ram their cars into hundreds of <br>recruits outside police stations, how on earth can <br>anyone hold an election next January? Even the National <br>Conference to appoint those who will arrange elections <br>has been twice postponed. And looking back through my <br>notebooks over the past five weeks, I find that not a <br>single Iraqi, not a single American soldier I have <br>spoken to, not a single mercenary - be he American, <br>British or South African - believes that there will be <br>elections in January. All said that Iraq is <br>deteriorating by the day. And most asked why we <br>journalists weren't saying so. <br> <br>But in Baghdad, I turn on my television and watch Bush <br>telling his Republican supporters that Iraq is <br>improving, that Iraqis support the "coalition," that <br>they support their new US-manufactured government, that <br>the "war on terror" is being won, that Americans are <br>safer. Then I go to an internet site and watch two <br>hooded men hacking off the head of an American in <br>Riyadh, tearing at the vertebrae of an American in Iraq <br>with a knife. Each day, the papers here list another <br>construction company pulling out of the country. And I <br>go down to visit the friendly, tragically sad staff of <br>the Baghdad mortuary and there, each day, are dozens of <br>those Iraqis we supposedly came to liberate, screaming <br>and weeping and cursing as they carry their loved ones <br>on their shoulders in cheap coffins. <br> <br>I keep re-reading Tony Blair's statement. "I remain <br>convinced it was right to go to war. It was the most <br>difficult decision of my life." And I cannot understand <br>it. It may be a terrible decision to go to war. Even <br>Chamberlain thought that; but he didn't find it a <br>difficult decision - because, after the Nazi invasion <br>of Poland, it was the right thing to do. And driving <br>the streets of Baghdad now, watching the terrified <br>American patrols, hearing yet another thunderous <br>explosion shaking my windows and doors after dawn, I <br>realise what all this means. Going to war in Iraq, <br>invading Iraq last year, was the most difficult <br>decision Blair had to take because he thought - <br>correctly - that it might be the wrong decision. I will <br>always remember his remark to British troops in Basra, <br>that the sacrifice of British soldiers was not <br>Hollywood but "real flesh and blood." Yes, it was real <br>flesh and blood that was shed - but for weapons of mass <br>destruction that weren't real at all. <br> <br>"Deadly force is authorised," it says on checkpoints <br>all over Baghdad. Authorised by whom? There is no <br>accountability. Repeatedly, on the great highways out <br>of the city US soldiers shriek at motorists and open <br>fire at the least suspicion. "We had some Navy Seals <br>down at our checkpoint the other day," a 1st Cavalry <br>sergeant says to me. "They asked if we were having any <br>trouble. I said, yes, they've been shooting at us from <br>a house over there. One of them asked: That house? We <br>said yes. So they have these three SUVs and a lot of <br>weapons made of titanium and they drive off towards the <br>house. And later they come back and say 'We've taken <br>care of that.' And we didn't get shot at any more." <br> <br>What does this mean? The Americans are now bragging <br>about their siege of Najaf. Lieutenant Colonel Garry <br>Bishop of the 37th Armoured Divisions 1st Battalion <br>believes it was an "ideal" battle (even though he <br>failed to kill or capture Muqtada Sadr whose "Mehdi <br>army" were fighting the US forces). It was "ideal," <br>Bishop explained, because the Americans avoided <br>damaging the holy shrines of the Imams Ali and Hussein. <br>What are Iraqis to make of this? What if a Muslim army <br>occupied Kent and bombarded Canterbury and then bragged <br>that they hadnt damaged Canterbury Cathedral? Would we <br>be grateful? <br> <br>What, indeed, are we to make of a war which is turned <br>into a fantasy by those who started it? As foreign <br>workers pour out of Iraq for fear of their lives, US <br>Secretary of State Colin Powell tells a press <br>conference that hostage-taking is having an "effect" on <br>reconstruction. Effect! Oil pipeline explosions are now <br>as regular as power cuts. In parts of Baghdad now, they <br>have only four hours of electricity a day; the streets <br>swarm with foreign mercenaries, guns poking from <br>windows, shouting abusively at Iraqis who don't clear <br>the way for them. This is the "safer" Iraq which Mr <br>Blair was boasting of the other day. What world does <br>the British Government exist in? <br> <br>Take the Saddam trial. The entire Arab press - <br>including the Baghdad papers - prints the judge's name. <br>Indeed, the same judge has given interviews about <br>his charges of murder against Muqtada Sadr. He has <br>posed for newspaper pictures. But when I mention his <br>name in The Independent, I was solemnly censured by the <br>British Government's spokesman. Salem Chalabi <br>threatened to prosecute me. So let me get this right. <br>We illegally invade Iraq. We kill up to 11,000 Iraqis. <br>And Mr Chalabi, appointed by the Americans, says I'm <br>guilty of "incitement to murder." That just about says <br>it all. <br> <br>---------------------------- <br> <br>http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/story.jsp?story=546763 <br> <br> * <b on></b> </body>