Tuesday, July 13, 2004

What happened to democracy?

From The Progressive:

Bush Supports Martial Law in Iraq

All right, it's come to pass, but where's the outrage about the newly minted martial law for Iraq?

Dr. Allawi, the veteran CIA man who is now undercover as Iraq's prime minister, wasted no time in office before shredding the final fall-back rationale for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which was, as you'll remember, to bring democracy to Baghdad.

. . .

Barely a week into office, Allawi signed a law granting himself extraordinary powers to "restrict the freedoms of citizens or foreigners," to ban groups, to barge into homes, and to hold suspects indefinitely.

And guess who will be enforcing martial law?

Not the Iraqis. They don't have enough troops. And they aren't reliable, anyway. No, this task will fall to the Americans, who have been essentially performing it already. And Bush and his generals are more than happy to keep handling the job.

"We can certainly be supportive of the Iraqi government when asked, on a case-by-case basis," a senior American military official told The New York Times. "I'm sure we can be helpful."

. . .


I'm so glad we can believe what our president says. It must be a dismal picture of democracy the Iraqis are getting. Martial law being enforced by foreign troops. Explain to me how this is helpful.

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