tom_thinks
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
The Hand-over
The hand-over of 'sovereignty' to the self-appointed Iraqi government happened yesterday, in a blatant effort to disrupt plans by insurgents for massive attacks. Strangely enough some press is reporting, to the administration's delight, that the hand-over happened early or ahead of schedule because things are going so well over there. I recommend reading .Juan Cole's take on this.
The early hand-over also had the added benefit of stealing Monday press from the success of Fahrenheit 9/11 and the Supreme Court rulings to allow 'enemy combatants' to obtain access to the courts and legal counsel.
This entire exercise is a publicity stunt and has almost no substance to it. Gwen Ifill said on US television on Sunday that she had talked to Condaleeza Rice, and that her hope was that when something went wrong in Iraq, the journalists would now grill Allawi about it rather than the Bush administration. (Or words to that effect). Ifill seems to me to have given away the whole Bush show. That's what this whole thing is about. It is Public Relations and manipulation of journalists. Let's see if they fall for it.
...
So that some group of Iraqis now control the budget and can set key policy in some regards may be significant. But the caretaker government is hedged around by American power. Negroponte (the US ambassador to Baghdad who has just arrived in the country) will control $18 bn. in US AID to Iraq. Rumsfeld will go on controlling the US and coalition military. There isn't much space left for real Iraqi sovereignty in all that.
The early hand-over also had the added benefit of stealing Monday press from the success of Fahrenheit 9/11 and the Supreme Court rulings to allow 'enemy combatants' to obtain access to the courts and legal counsel.
posted by Tom, 6/29/2004 03:46:00 PM
