Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week blasted the West for complaining about irregularities in the Ukrainian electoral process while pressing ahead with plans to hold a vote next month in Iraq despite the bloodshed there and the "occupation" by US-led troops.
"We do not understand how there can be an election in a country under conditions of total occupation. ... It's absurd. It's a farce," Putin said.
Sure it's absurd. Sure it's a farce. But it's going to happen. No matter what. Bush has made this very clear over and over. But he never tells us why. It seems like a good question.
Why is the USA so anxious to hold elections in Iraq? To bolster the claim that they are 'democratizing' Iraq? No, not really. The upcoming Iraqi 'election' is not about democracy. How could it be? The Bush administration doesn't care about democracy anyway, as has been very clear for a long time. This is about something more important [to them, anyway]. It's about money. You see, it's against international law to plunder a country while you are occupying it militarily. But if it has an 'elected' government, you can legally rob it blind. Naomi Klein explains all this in an excellent essay, Baghdad Year Zero
International law prohibits occupiers from selling state assets themselves, but it doesn’t say anything about the puppet governments they appoint.
I urge you to read the entire article.
Meanwhile, how are things going in Iraq? Big surprise: apparently wishful thinking is still not a viable strategy. Here's an excerpt from Think tanks slam US Iraq strategy:
The Wasington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIC) said on Wednesday that the US is facing increasingly deadly attacks in Iraq because it has failed to honestly assess facts on the ground.
And in a report published on the same day, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said Iraqi hostility towards the US-led "occupation" means that Washington can no longer achieve its pre-war goals.
The CSIC report, prepared by senior fellow Anthony Cordesman, said administration spokesmen had appeared to live "in a fantasyland" when giving accounts of events in Iraq.
Three cheers for Anthony Cordesman. It of courage to tell the truth these days. It even takes courage just to face the truth. But some of us are still trying.