Some Sovereignty

When Iraqi "sovereignty"(sic) was "transferred"(sic), they all passed a note around about the "surprise" decision to transfer power two days early. Condi Rice had written on a card, "Iraq is sovereign" and Bush wrote across on the side, in supposed response, "Let freedom reign!"

Then, of course, they immediately photographed the note and distributed it to the news media. “Mission accomplished” revisited.

It is hard to believe that there are some citizens who think that this note wasn't specifically scripted beforehand for P.R. purposes, but sadly, there ARE people that gullible, and they make up some of Bush's base, which seems to consist entirely of the dupers and the dupes.

The Bushies are trying to give the impression that the so-called "transfer of power" was a moment of earth-shaking significance, and they needed SOME P.R. to make up for the fact that the actual event was furtive and clandestine.

Transferring power on the sly certainly was an odd thing to do, considering the fact that our occupying forces were supposed to be greeted by deliriously happy Iraqis throwing flowers and all.

But they needed to do SOMETHING to give the impression that it was an historical moment when in reality it was just bureaucratic paper-shuffling, and nothing much has really changed at all.

“Sovereign” Iraq is obviously not sovereign. The government is not elected. The government, in fact, is hand-picked by an occupying force and was chosen because they were a puppet of that occupying force. They will govern in cooperation with the occupying force and with the American Businesses who have been awarded almost all of the contracts by the occupying force, and who are linked through personal ties and campaign contributions to the Bush administration.

The Iraqis are no freer of the United States than they were last week.

And the United States is no freer of Iraq that IT was last week. We still have 130,000 troops over there getting shot at with no real clue as to how or when we will bring them home. We still have billions upon billions of dollars bleeding from the United States Treasury and fattening the coffers of Bush's cronies while our infrastructure, our hospitals and our schools are crumbling over here.

As long as Iraq is occupied by a foreign army, ruled by foreign businesses and run by people who are hand-picked by a foreign power, “sovereignty” isn’t merely a sham, it’s a pathetic joke. And a transparent, obvious, cynicalm, pathetic joke.

You may think I'm too cynical. But I'm not nearly as cynical as THESE folks. I couldn't possibly be.