Arab News: While the Americans Stay, Iraq’s on a Downward Spiral

[Barrett808]

While the Americans Stay, Iraq’s on a Downward Spiral
Linda S. Heard, Arab News

CAIRO, 3 August 2004 — It seems that Bush and Blair inhabit the same cloud cuckoo land...or pretend to. On July 20, Blair told Parliament to rejoice in the liberation of the Iraqi people while Bush is on the campaign trail saying there are no more “torture chambers or rape rooms or mass graves in Iraq”. They both insist the situation in Iraq is getting better.

Syndicated columnist Oliver North of Iran-Contra infamy, now camping out with the Marines in Iraq apparently agrees. He recently wrote: “When I spoke to the commandant, he showed great pride in his Marines. Their job, he said ‘is difficult. But, are they making a difference? Are they helping the Iraqis to help themselves? Absolutely’, he said. ‘And, if you call that winning, then we probably are’.”

On the other hand, Robert Fisk, a reporter and columnist with The Independent, currently on the ground in Iraq, paints a more somber picture. In his August 1 column, he writes: “For just as, before the war, our governments warned us of threats that did not exist, now they hide from us threats that do exist. Much of Iraq has fallen outside the control of America’s puppet government in Baghdad but we are not told. Hundreds of attacks are made against US troops every month. But unless an American dies, we are not told. This month’s death toll of Iraqis in Baghdad alone has now reached 700 — the worst month since the invasion ended. But we are not told.”

For the public, assessing the truth isn’t easy for it’s partly in the eye of the beholder. If you happen to believe Bush and Blair are stand up guys in the mould of George Washington who couldn’t “tell a lie”, then you will probably go along with the Oliver North/Fox News perspectives. But those in the US and Britain who eschew fake patriotism, set aside political sloganeering and look beyond the gagged and compliant mainstream media, will see another reality. It’s reality of which most Arabs are only too aware.

For example, an article by Ahmed Janabi on the Al-Jazeera website quotes an Iraqi political group as alleging “more than 37,000 Iraqi civilians were killed between the start of the US-led invasion in March 2003 and October” of that same year. That may or may not be true, but oddly the coalition hasn’t even bothered to find out and frowns on anyone else attempting to do so. Other groups have estimated the toll at between 15 and 20,000. What does this say about Bush’s claim: “No more mass graves”? And as for “no more rape rooms” what does America’s commander in chief think was going on at Abu Ghraib?

(more)

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=49322&d=3&m=8&y=2004