Bush Demands Dictatorial Powers From Iraqi Cabinet

An administration which works to set up a military dictatorship in another country cannot claim to be ‘creating democracy’ there. Bush Demands Dictatorial Powers From Iraqi CabinetBy Cliff Montgomery – June 20th, 2008Recently de-classified media reveal that the Bush Administration has long worked for a deal with Baghdad which would give U.S. forces a virtually unlimited freedom of action in Iraq–a move which tears to shreds the official claim that the White House is ‘bringing democracy’ to that war-torn nation.  A U.S. administration which fights to set up a totalitarian military dictatorship in another country cannot claim to be ‘creating democracy’ in that region of the world. That is, unless that administration simply does not care about reality.News accounts suggest that the Bush White House is trying to force the Iraqi government to submit to the dictatorial pact by the conclusion of July 2008.  The deal would grant the United States over 50 military compounds in Iraq, eliminate any rule of law for U.S. forces–thus giving them an absolute, unfettered power to both conduct war actions and to arrest and detain any Iraqi citizen–and would provide U.S. contractors a total immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law.Understandably, both the Iraqi people and the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki find the Bush Administration demands insulting, to say the least. Last week, the Maliki cabinet officially announced that discussions on the dictatorial pact have ground to a halt.“The Iraqi demands are unacceptable to the Americans, and the American demands are unacceptable to the Iraqis, and the result is that we have reached an impasse,” said Maliki during a discussion with reporters in Jordan.“The Iraqis will not consent to an agreement that infringes their sovereignty,” he added.Such firm Iraqi opposition has yielded some fruit, according to Iman al-Saadi, an Iraqi Parliament legal committee member.  Saadi last week told reporters that the Bush Administration has given up its demand for U.S. contractor immunity, and “had also watered down the demand for bases,” according to the June 14th edition of The New York Times.A number of heavily redacted documents obtained via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests from the National Security Archive–a private, government secrecy watchdog group–show that the Bush Administration began its draft of these totalitarian demands in November 2003.  The Bush White initially had hoped the pact would be quickly accepted by Iraq’s early, interim  Governing Council–a group which was full of Bush appointees.This reporter apparently was one of the first to discover the existence of these demands. In a July 2004 piece for The Washington Spectator, an award-winning independent newsletter, this journalist reported:“Perhaps sensing a coming storm, the Bush staff apparently tried to talk the new Iraq authorities into passing a law giving all U.S. private contractors in Iraq—presumably including those allegedly involved in the Abu Ghraib scandal—a…blanket immunity. The Iraqi officials have flatly refused.”Since his invasion of Iraq in March 2003, George W. Bush has provided both American soldiers and the U.S. public with numerous excuses for his fruitless nation-building, which later proved to be nothing more than a tissue of lies: He was invading Iraq because it retained workable weapons of mass destruction stores; he was invading because Saddam Hussein was a supporter of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.During an election year, we feel it’s important to point out that the remaining excuse for Bush’s continued occupation of Iraq–that he is somehow “creating democracy” for another people by invading their country and becoming their absolute dictator–is now proven to be as false and as asinine as all the other lies.Like what you’re reading so far? Then why not order a full year (52 issues) of thee-newsletter for only $15? A major article covering an story not being told in the Corporate Press will be delivered to your email every Monday morning for a full year, for less than 30 cents an issue. Order Now!