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June 23, 2004
U.S. Troops May Enforce Martial Law in Iraq
CIA-asset Ayad Allawi, appointed prime-minister by the United States, had been talking about imposing martial law for a few days now. Yesterday, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz told the House Armed Services Committee that U.S. troops might be the enforcers:
Wolfowitz said it is possible that U.S. troops could be used to enforce Iraqi martial law after the partial transfer of power a week from now. Ayad Alawi, Iraq's interim prime minister, has said martial law is possible to crack down on insurgents.
It's also possible, Wolfowitz argued, that U.S. troops may be there for many years:
[Ranking Democratic Representative Ike]Skelton asked if US forces would be in Iraq for "a good many years.""That is entirely possible," said Wolfowitz.
Wolfowitz also said that "the end is when Iraqis are governing their own country."
One keeps needing to recap because the administration keeps describing an alternative universe and the media do not challenge it anywhere near enough. So here's quick run down of last year:
The Coalition Provisional Authority, headed by Bremer III, scrapped local elections early on and later proposed a misnamed "caucus" process that would only allow people vetted by the CPA to appoint the interim government. The idea was dropped when Grand Ayatollah Sistani, along with a few hundred thousand Iraqi demonstrators, said no way and put forth the radical idea of one person, one vote, now. CPA said maybe later and unilaterally appointed a CIA-asset involved in acts of terrorism against Iraq as prime minister. Now we're told we might be enforcing martial law in Iraq and be there for many years until "Iraqis are governing their country." Which they seem quite eager to but which we do not seem to want to allow.
Keep all that in mind next time someone describes this administration and the neo-cons as "idealists" who "unrealistically" want to "impose democracy" in the Middle East.
Posted by zeynep at June 23, 2004 09:59 AM
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