Many people believe that Paul Bremer, the American civilian governor of Iraq with his elegantly fashionable clothing, fancies himself as the new James Bond who is in Iraq to make a movie instead of being governor.
We are watching a movie with old stars, with no heart, humanity or moral values or human rights principles. All the allegations about why a war was necessary have been exposed as false and the credibility of those making those allegations utterly discredited.
The American president and his followers, and Tony Blair, who carries out Washington’s bidding, now face political, economic and military problems. Before this problem there was a humanitarian problem known as “Iraq under sanctions”.
No one, with some knowledge about Iraq, thought that it would be easy to govern the country — and certainly not as the American and British policymakers thought it should be governed.
For example, Bush cannot appoint a governor in one of American states; the people in the states have the right to elect their own governor. In Iraq, however, people with different religious background, belonging to different ethic groups, tribes and backgrounds have no right to elect their governor.
Donald Rumsfeld and his coterie are controlling Iraq and leading it to chaos; there is more law of the jungle now than there was in the past.
Baghdad’s version of James Bond cannot save the American president and his followers. He cannot save the prime minister of England and others who are involved in this disaster that will surely jeopardize their political futures. All their excuses are now seen as false.
Their soldiers are dying and being wounded every day in Iraq. American and British politicians are losing public confidence as a result. Blair himself is in deep trouble about the suicide of the British scientist David Kelly, who publicly questioned whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
Blair is doing no more than carrying out American political decisions. A lie has a short life because truth cannot be hidden indefinitely. Time is always on the side of truth. The occupation of Iraq, regardless of how it was justified at the time, will ultimately be seen as a barbaric action.
Those who were involved in it will go into the waste bin of history. Ahmad Chalabi and the Kurdish leaders will pay a heavy price once the Iraqi people rebel against the invaders.
Most important, what is happening to American soldiers now in terms of daily killings is just a start. James Bond Bremer must recognize that his actions must be based on knowledge gained from the Iraqi people and not from Washington politicians. He may look handsome but he is nobody in Iraq.
