Gary Younge (Guardian Utd): Never mind the truth

[Jack Rabbit]

From the Guardian Unlimited (UK)
Dated Monday May 31

Never mind the truth
Bush and Blair appear to think that making declarations on Iraq is enough to change the realities on the ground
By Gary Younge

Politics has, to an extent, always been about the triumph of symbols over substance and assertion over actuality. But in the case of Iraq this trend seems to have reached its apogee, as though statements by themselves can fashion reality by the force of their own will and judgment. Declaration and proclamation have become everything. The question of whether they bear any relation to the world we actually live in seems like an unpleasant and occasionally embarrassing intrusion. The motto of the day both in Downing Street and the White House seems to be: "To say it is so is to make it so." These people are rewriting history before the ink on the first draft is even dry.
The most obvious example was President George Bush's speech to the nation last week, as he struggled to define the mission in Iraq. "On June 30 the occupation will end and Iraqis will govern their own affairs," he said. To understand what will happen at the end of the month it would make more sense to turn the sentence inside out so that it says the opposite: "On June 30 the occupation will continue and Iraqis will not govern their own affairs."
To the charge that this is leftwing axe-grinding, look no further than the lead editorial in the Economist, which supported the war. "To those who complain that in this case the sovereignty of the Iraqi government is going to be pretty bogus, the answer of Messrs Bush and Blair ought to be the honest one. Of course it is. In Iraq's present context, sovereignty is just a word on paper, and not even the most important one."
Only yesterday the Iraqi governing council members complained of "massive pressure" to endorse Adnan Pachachi, America's choice for president of the interim government, even though most of them favoured another candidate, more critical of the US. The US, which has the final say in the matter, threatened not to recognise the council's choice. Given that the US chose the members of the council, one can only imagine how they will get on with a truly independent, democratically accountable group of representatives.

Read more.

[Martin Eden]

1. Full sovereignty

Bush kept repeating it, therefore it must be so.

Iraq's government: chosen by U.S. appointed council memebers, or by UN ambassador Brahimi.

No constitution, no governmental body elected by Iraqis, no system of laws except what the occupational provisional authority put in place and tries to enforce, and foreign troops providing the power while building 14 long term military bases.

Oh yes, and Iraqi businesses and properties sold to the highest international bidders when the Iraqi people were in no position to validate such sales or compete in the bidding.

Yet Bush and Blair state unequivocally this is full sovereignty.

I'm beginning to wonder whether reality really has entered some kind of parallel universe, where fact merges with fiction twenty years later than Orwell predicted.

This is classic double-think. Most pundits concur that nothing like full sovereignty will take place on June 30, yet the president and prime minister can repeatedly make that assertion without being raked over the coals for their blatant and brazen public mendacity.

As if by pretending to believe in full sovereignty, maybe the Iraqis won't notice and they'll believe it too -- just as they've believed and played along with every neocon pronouncement thus far.

It just never ceases to amaze.

Thanks to Gary Younge, among others, I still cling to the belief that I am sane and the rest of the world is nuts.

[Manix]

2. I have a feeling history will not be kind to Bush and Blair when all

their massive lies and deceptions are fully exposed and the damage
they have done to international relations is realized.