Behind the Fantasies of Bushworld

[MundoQueGanar]

This guy Larry Everest is, in my opinion, the top anti-imperialist expert on Iraq. Those who are interested should also check out his book Oil, Power, and Empire.
--mqg


Behind the Fantasies of Bushworld:
Deepening War and Crisis in Iraq
by Larry Everest

Revolutionary Worker #1253, October 3, 2004, posted at http://rwor.org

President Bush's address to the UN on Sept. 21 was a surreal blend of raw arrogance and deliberate fantasy. Bush painted a happy-face picture of the U.S. war-fighting in Iraq--inventing a fantasy universe where Iraqis supposedly see U.S. occupiers as their liberators, where Iraq is seeing slow but steady progress toward stabilization, and where U.S. domination means "freedom" and eventual "democracy" for the whole Middle East (and the rest of the planet too!).

Bush baldly declared that "the people of Iraq have regained sovereignty"--meaning that they are supposedly now in control of their own country.

He neglected to mention that the nearly 150,000 U.S. troops are the real "sovereign" force in Iraq, that the political life of the country is dictated from Washington and the huge U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

Bush did not mention that the current "interim Iraqi government" was hand-picked by the U.S. occupation forces, or that it is headed by Iyad Allawi, a notorious, long-time CIA collaborator. Instead, in Bush's parallel dimension, this slavish puppet Allawi "has earned the support of every nation that believes in self- determination and desires peace."

This same Bush embraced the CIA's bogus pre-war intelligence on Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction--because it suited his war plans. But now he rejects the CIA's July report on Iraq--because this time their summaries don't suit his plans. In this July report, the CIA predicted three grim scenarios for Iraq: civil war, political fragmentation, or tenuous stability under long-term occupation. Bush claimed (this time) that the CIA was just "guessing," and described their scenarios as "life could be lousy, life could be OK, life could be better."


(continued)

The full version of this article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
http://rwor.org
Write: Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654
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[Moderator]

1. MundoQueGanar--as per DU copyright rules

Please post no more than 4 paragraphs of an article and give a link to the original.

Thank you for your co-operation.

[MundoQueGanar]

2. whoops

Sorry--must have missed that. I did truncate the article though.

[Moderator]

3. You can edit it for the first hour after posting

Please do.

[MundoQueGanar]

4. just did.

[MundoQueGanar]

5. re-posting encouraged

Not that I'm challenging the rules (I'm not the type to ever do that ;) ) but the Rev. Worker has a policy that they actually ENCOURAGE people to repost their entire articles--here's what they say about that http://rwor.org/posting.htm . I originally just posted the first third of this article so as not to overload readers.

So for point of clarity, is the policy about copyright, or is it about brevity?

Thanks, mqg

[Moderator]

6. Please post all DU administration questions

In the Ask the Administrators forum. They make the final rulings.
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