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<font size=3><br><br>
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</font><h1><b>The Handover: Restoration of Iraqi sovereignty - or Alice
in Wonderland?<br><br>
<br>
By Robert Fisk<br><br>
<br>
</b></h1><h3><b> </b></h3><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3><b>29
June 2004<br><br>
</b> <br><br>
<b><a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/story.jsp">http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/story.jsp</a><br><br>
</b> <br><br>
So in the end, America's enemies set the date. The handover of "full
sovereignty" was secretly brought forward so that the ex-CIA
intelligence officer who is now "Prime Minister" of Iraq could
avoid another bloody offensive by America's enemies. What is supposed to
be the most important date in Iraq's modern history was changed like a
birthday party because it might rain on Wednesday. <br><br>
<br><br>
Pitiful is the word that comes to mind. Here we were, handing "full
sovereignty" to the people of Iraq "full", of course,
providing we forget the 160,000 foreign soldiers whom the Prime Minister,
Iyad Allawi, has apparently asked to stay in Iraq, "full"
providing we forget the 3,000 US diplomats in Baghdad who will constitute
the largest US embassy in the world without even telling the Iraqi
people that we had changed the date. <br><br>
<br><br>
Few, save of course for the Iraqis, understood the cruellest paradox of
the event. For it was the new Iraqi Foreign Minister should we not put
his title, too, into quotation marks? who chose to leak the
"bringing forward" of sovereignty in Iraq at the Nato summit in
Turkey. Thus was this new and unprecedented date in modern Iraqi history
announced not in Baghdad but in the capital of the former Ottoman empire
which once ruled Iraq. <i>Alice in Wonderland</i> could not have improved
on this. The looking-glass reflects all the way from Baghdad to
Washington. In its savage irony Ibsen might have done justice to the
occasion. After all, what could have been more familiar than Allawi's
appeal to Iraqis to fight "the enemies of the people".
<br><br>
<br><br>
Power was ritually handed over in legal documents. The new government was
sworn in on the Koran. The US proconsul, Paul Bremer, formally shook
hands with Mr Allawi and boarded his C130 to fly home, guarded by special
forces men in shades. <br><br>
<br><br>
It was difficult to remember that Mr Bremer was touted for his job more
than a year ago because he was a "counter-terrorism" expert
this definitely should be in inverted commas and that what he referred
to as "dead-enders" [Baathist diehards] managed to turn almost
an entire Iraqi population against the United States and Britain in just
a few months. <br><br>
<br><br>
According to Mr Allawi yesterday, the "dead-enders" and the
"remnants" belonged to Saddam Hussein. Those of them who had
not committed crimes could even join the new authorities, he announced.
But it had already been made clear that Mr Allawi was pondering martial
law, the <i>sine qua non </i>of every Arab dictatorship this time to be
imposed on an Arab state, heaven spare us, by a Western army led by an
avowedly Christian government. Who was the last man to impose martial law
on Iraqis? Wasn't it Saddam Hussein? <br><br>
<br><br>
No, Mr Allawi and his chums along with the convicted fraudster Ahmed
Chalabi, now dug up from his political grave are not little Saddams.
Indeed, it is Mr Allawi's claim to fame that he was a Saddam loyalist
until he upped sticks and fled to London. He almost got assassinated by
Saddam before this by his own admission he took the King's shilling
(MI6) and the CIA's dollar and (again by his own admission) that of 12
other intelligence agencies. <br><br>
<br><br>
Yesterday, Mr Allawi was talking of a "historical day". As far
as the new Prime Minister is concerned, Iraqis were about to enjoy
"full sovereignty". Those of us who put quotation marks around
"liberation" in 2003 should now put quotation marks around
"sovereignty". Doing this has become part of the reporting of
the Middle East. <br><br>
<br><br>
Perhaps most remarkable of all was Mr Allawi's demand that
"mercenaries who come to Iraq from foreign countries" should
leave Iraq. There are, of course, 80,000 Western "mercenaries"
in Iraq, most of them wearing Western clothes. But of course, Mr Allawi
was not speaking of these men. And herein lies a problem. There must come
a time when we have to give up clichιs, when we have to give up on the
American nightmares. Al-Qa'ida does not have an original branch in Iraq.
And the Iraqis didn't plan September 11, 2001. <br><br>
<br><br>
But not to worry. The new Iraqi Prime Minister will soon introduce
martial law journalists who think they can escape criticism should
reflect again and thus we can all wait for a request for more American
troops "at the formal request of the provincial government".
Wait, then, for the first expulsion of journalists. Democratic elections
will be held in Iraq, "it is hoped", within five months. Well,
we shall see. <br><br>
<br><br>
True, Mr Allawi promises a future Iraq with "a society of all
Iraqis, irrespective of ethnicity, colour or religion." But the
Iraqis who Mr Allawi promises to protect do not apparently include the
5,000 prisoners held in America's dubious camps across Iraq. At least
3,000 will remain captive, largely of the Americans. <br><br>
<br><br>
There were many promises yesterday of a trial for Saddam Hussein and his
colleagues although, not surprisingly, Iraqi lawyers felt there were
other, more pressing issues to pursue. Paul Bremer abolished the death
penalty in Iraq but Mr Allawi seems to want to bring it back. Asked
whether Saddam might be executed, he remarked that "this is again
something which is being debated in the judicial system in Iraq". He
said, however, that he was in favour of capital punishment. <br><br>
<br><br>
According to American sources, the United States has been putting
pressure on Mr Allawi for at least two weeks in the hope that his
ministries could in theory, at least function without US support.
American advisers had already been withdrawn from many Iraqi
institutions. Yet when he appeared yesterday, the Prime Minister spoke
with words that might have come from George Bush. He warned "the
forces of terror" that "we will not forget who stood with us
and against us in this crisis". As the new "Cabinet"
stepped forward to place their hands on the Koran, a large number of
Iraqi flags lined the podium behind them though not the strange blue
and white banner which the former Interim Council had concocted two
months ago. <br><br>
<br><br>
The real problem for Mr Allawi is that he has to be an independent leader
while relying upon an alien, Western and Christian force to support his
rule. He cannot produce security without the assistance of an alien
force. But he has no control over that force. He cannot order the
Americans to leave. But here is the real question. <br><br>
<br><br>
If Mr Allawi really intends to lead Iraq, the most powerful demonstration
he could show would be to demand the immediate withdrawal of all foreign
forces. Within hours, he would be a hero in Iraq. The Americans would be
finished. But does Mr Allawi have the wit to realise that this ultimate
step might save him? Who can tell, at this critical and bloody hour?
America's satraps have been known to turn traitor before. Yet the whole
painful equation in Baghdad now is that Mr Allawi is relying on the one
army whose evacuation he needs to prove his own credibility. <br><br>
<br><br>
The Western occupying powers have left behind a raft of dubious
legislation. Much of it allows Western companies to suck up the profits
of reconstruction an issue over which the Iraqis had no choice and
many people in the country have no interest in continuing Mr Bremer's
occupation laws. No one, for example, is likely to spend a month in jail
for driving without a licence. But why should US and other Western
businesses have legal immunity from Iraqi law? When a British or American
mercenary shoots dead an Iraqi, he cannot be taken to an Iraqi court.
<br><br>
<br><br>
But Mr Allawi relies upon these same mercenaries. Which is why, sadly and
inevitably, he and his government will fail. The insurgency now has a
life of its own and a plan. If it can continue to maintain an
independence struggle for nationalists within the Sunni Muslim areas
north and west of Baghdad, then the Sunnis may also claim that they have
the right to form Iraq's first independent, post-American government.
<br><br>
<br><br>
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