Here We Go Again

I know we shouldn’t expect the Bush administration to suddenly start acting in a reasonable and thoughtful manner, but today they’ve taken things to another level. I mean, even if we set aside, for a moment, the fact that they’re going to ignore the United Nations as and when it suits them, even if we pass over the haphazard cut-and-paste flavour of the evidence of Iraq’s weapons programme [see below], the propaganda still doesn’t make any sense.

The thing is, it’s probably because the propaganda war isn’t their main concern anymore; they’ve moved up a step. When you have Donald Rumsfeld openly condemning broadly sympathetic UN allies such as France and Germany, and with Saudia Arabia asking that all American troops be withdrawn upon the ending of military occupation of Iraq (which they are coupling with some interesting reforms which might make some moves towards a semblance of democracy), it doesn’t seem too far fetched to suppose that the U.S. want to enter Iraq and install a favourable regime as quickly as possible, given that Saudi Arabia might well revise the timescale for the removal of American troops. And the last thing that the Bush administration needs is a potential conflict with Saudi Arabia.

As for the proposed regime change, there’s a worrying familiarity about the proposals. The fact that the suggested military governor might be General Tommy Franks (who prosecuted the “war” in Afghanistan), is worrying enough, but not as disconcerting as the possible “civilian” governor favoured for the second phase of American involvement in Iraq: Norman Schwarzkopf. Yes, that’s the man who played a major part in killing countless numbers of Iraqi citizens in the first Gulf War 12 years ago. (Although at least they didn’t pick Colin Powell, who, when asked what he thought of the number of Iraqi citizens killed in the first Gulf war, replied that “It’s really not a number I’m terribly interested in”.)

And while we’re on the subject of The War, read and then bookmark the war ticker. (Thanks to The Rub for that particular link.)

Posted at 11pm on 09/02/03 by Leon McDermott to the politics category.
Permalink · Add to del.icio.us