NP? Hopes for Iraq? Fat chance, they say Down Under.

[pynchonoid]

US seeks a tamer version of Saddam
August 31, 2003

Now that Islamic fundamentalists are emerging as the
winners from the invasion of Iraq, the search is on
for a new Saddam Hussein to keep them under control. 

It won't be easy. After all, the US has promised to
give Iraqis the chance to enjoy democracy at the same
time as it is recruiting former members of Saddam's
secret police. 

A genuinely free election could easily produce an
Islamic government which is no friend of the US -
despite the naive expectations before the invasion. So
far, all that has been achieved is a complete mess. 

Although Australia is officially one of the occupying
powers, the Howard Government looks like avoiding
public calls from the Bush Administration to supply
fresh troops to ease the burden on US forces. 

With Bush badly needing to stop the killing of
American soldiers, it was revealed last week that US
authorities have begun hiring former members of
Saddam's feared security service to track down who is
behind the attacks. 

Not surprisingly, this has angered Iraqis who were
persecuted by the secret police during Saddam's brutal
reign.

One knowledgeable Australian official says privately
that US efforts to control Iraq include recruiting
agents to create divisions among Islamic clerics who
have growing political power.

This official says the ultimate US goal is to find a
strong secular leader who can keep the fundamentalists
at bay, even if they don't foster terrorism.

Other sources say this is only one of several paths
the US is pursuing - including a greater
administrative role for the UN - in an effort to
extricate itself from the current nightmare.

But Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is on record as
saying that the emergence of a Shiite-dominated
government in alliance with Iran will not be allowed
to happen. A secular strongman has certainly appealed
to US policymakers in the past. 

A United Press International investigation recently
unearthed details of early US links with Saddam which
have also been noted by former Labor prime minister
Bob Hawke. 

According to UPI, the 22-year-old Saddam was one of
the thugs hired with the CIA's blessing to assassinate
the then Iraqi prime minister Abd al-Karim Qasim in
1959. After the attempt was botched, Saddam was sent
for further training in Beirut and Cairo.

He later returned to Iraq where he killed large
numbers of communists while he was head of the
intelligence service, before taking over as president
in 1979.

Perhaps the US will find a new secular strongman among
its recruits from Saddam's secret police. It is,
however, hard to see how a new government won't emerge
in which Islamic clerics have a dominant role. Neither
outcome is a pleasant prospect for those who want a
tolerant society. 

But Howard is unlikely to revise his view that
"victory" has already been achieved in Iraq. 

And Labor, in the modern version of Australian
democracy, will remain too timorous to utter a word of
dissent. 

<http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/01/1062268480981.html>

So, it sounds as if the US is up to the same old
bloody business, installing one dictator after
another, prepared to turn a blind eye to the suffering
they cause as long as they otherwise serve US needs.
Sorry, Otto, but I don't see much hope for the Iraqis
as long as the current Bush Administration continues
this decades-old, despicable policy.



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