Iraqis Believe Their Representatives Obey ‘American Masters’

Is this the shining democracy George W. Bush thought was going to eliminate tyranny in the Middle East?Iraqis Believe Their Representatives Obey “American Masters”By Cliff Montgomery – June 13th, 2007There are reports that many high-ranking Iraqi politicians say they are in poor health–a claim which is often followed by the politician leaving their war-torn country for treatment elsewhere.In late February, Iraq’s President, Jalal Talabani, was flown to nearby Jordan for medical treatment as conflicting reports flew about his health. Sources in the Jordan capital of Amman–as well as those working in Talabani’s own Baghdad office–claimed to reporters that the 73-year-old Iraqi president had suffered a stroke. But in a televised interview, Talabani’s son said that his father was suffering from simple fatigue.Shi’ite leader Abdul Azizi al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Islamic Council in Iraq, recently went to Iran for a lung cancer treatment…after being diagnosed at a Texas hospital.Since al-Hakim heads Iraq’s largest Shia party, many feel his sudden departure is sure to cause further chaos on the country’s political landscape. The Bush Administration had put many of its dwindling hopes on al-Hakim’s party to push much-needed legislation through Iraq’s parliament, especially those items dealing with proceeds from Iraqi oil reserves.Sources inside the fortified Green Zone, where the Iraqi government is stationed, told Inter Press Service (IPS), a liberal wire service, that the number of Parliament members and government staff regularly at work may be less than 50 percent.”More than half the MPs, ministers and senior officials are on vacation, sick leave or on official assignment abroad (at any given time),” a government official who insisted on anonymity told IPS.”It is common practice now that they spend more time abroad than in their offices. The main reason is their fear of being targeted inside the country,” the official admitted.Many Iraqi citizens view the haphazard attendance of their lawmakers as indicative of their country’s lack of confidence in the U.S.-backed government.”It [was] a sick government right from the start and these people’s absence shows the huge size of the chaos in Iraq,” Waleed Zaidi, a Baghdad political analyst, told IPS.”The truth about rumors does not count as much as the solid fact that all those who are supposed to lead the country to stability are abroad for different reasons. A close look at the Iraqi scene shows that no one is really working to improve the situation,” he woefully added.It has almost become a joke to refer to the Iraqi Parliament as a functioning political body.”To say the truth for history, one must admit that we are not doing much for those who voted for us hoping we would improve their living conditions,” a member of the Iraqi Parliament, who insisted on anonymity, told IPS.”We have our justifications for not being able to serve. Starting from the difficulty in reaching the parliament building to the daily threats to our lives inside and outside the so-called Green Zone,” he added.A growing number of Iraqis now see ‘their government’ as little more than pawns of the Bush Administration.”The U.S. administration was furious when the Iraqi Parliament decided to declare a two-month summer vacation,” says 34-year-old Baghdad lawyer Alaa Abdul-Rahman.”It is not decided yet whether the administration’s request to parliament to give up the vacation in order to pass ‘essential legislations’ would be accepted or not, but we know they will eventually listen to their American masters,” he told IPS.As true with most people in crisis, Iraqis have done their best to turn these government embarrassments into pointed jokes about their representatives. But their frustration comes out when interviewed.Said 65-year-old taxi driver Mansoor Malalla from Shula, north of Baghdad, “we took serious chances to go and vote for them hoping things would improve, but our situation is getting worse and worse.””All they did was collect as many dollars as they could lay their hands on, leaving us as easy targets for hit squads and street bombs,” Malalla told IPS.”Even Americans who we saw as our saviors have turned out to be murderers and thieves. Now I have to work at this age because I fear for my son’s life in the deadly streets of Baghdad,” he  addedOther Iraqis voiced similar disillusionment.”Iraqis now feel that they do not have a government,” Sultan Kathum, a teacher from Hilla who frequently travels to Baghdad to serve as a human rights activist, told IPS.”(With) the absence of security, the humiliation, poverty and lack of essential services… Iraq appears to have gone back to a time when tribal leaders and clerics were the only powers that could solve some of their problems,” he explained.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!