As promised by the Bush administration, democracy is popping up all over in Iraq - or popping in, in some cases, and rather rudely.
This week a band of roughly 100 armed, Shiite militia thugs escorted Baghdad’s new mayor into office in a show of what you might call advanced Floridian democracy. No need to fuss with counting ballots; in fact, no need to fuss with even casting ballots. Just enter the office with some democratic firepower and announce the old is out, the new is in.
“This is the new Iraq,” said the removed mayor, Alaa al-Tamimi, who is now in hiding from the democratic-sounding Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution, the mob squad that staged the municipal coup d’état. “They use force to achieve their goal. When I left in 1995, every day, it is years for me,” said Mr. Tamimi, speaking of his exile from Saddam’s government. “But now when I leave I don’t think I will be sorry. I leave because I cannot live in such conditions.”
Such conditions? Whatever does he mean? According to the city council chief and head thug who spearheaded the coup, “We really want to establish the state of law for every citizen, and we did not threaten anyone.” His armed companions, he said, were merely present for his protection and other peaceful council members. It was all quite innocent.
The American Embassy had “no immediate comment” on these stirring democratic developments, and the Iraqi prime minister’s spokesman said “My guess is, yes, he is” concerned, but “it’s more or less a fait accompli that [the mayor] is not going back to office.” Oh well. We had the same thing happen here a few years back. And we came out of it swimmingly.
All of this comes with only a few constitution-shopping days left before the August 15 deadline, a process still frustrated by internal bickering over such profoundly fundamental issues as the depth of Islam’s participation in government affairs and the extent of provincial autonomy. Deal breakers both.
Meanwhile, the president’s call to “Bring ‘em on!” continues to inspire. In just the last couple days, insurgents killed four American soldiers and wounded six in one attack; a car bomb killed another American soldier and wounded two, also killing three civilians and wounding 54; small-arms fire took the life of yet another American soldier; mortar fire near a mosque killed two civilians and wounded four; another car bomb killed two Iraqi policemen and four civilians; and a spate of shootings killed nine Iraqi security officers.
As if all that isn’t chilling enough, now the secretary of defense is starting to talk tough about another front: Iran. “Weapons clearly, unambiguously from Iran have been found in Iraq,” said Donald Rumsfeld Tuesday. “It’s notably unhelpful for the Iranians to allow weapons of those types to cross the border.” And we all know that means. Next step: Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani will awaken to a horse’s head in bed.
That the secretary should find Iran’s possible interference “notably unhelpful,” without adding that it was, as well, entirely predictable, is - to continue on this adverbial roll - merely symptomatic. From easy opening to agonizing middle game, the Bush administration has ignored every informed warning from inside and out about the tremendous roadblocks that awaited its Iraq intentions. Now it cites interferences with those intentions as somehow unexpected.
It borders on the amusing to watch administration officials insist that the occupation is going well and could be going even better - it’s just that they’ve discovered there are these darned inconveniences in occupying a foreign land, you see, and they keep arising quite unfairly and right out of the blue. Gosh darn it.
This pretense that everything is under control - except when admitting that everything is falling apart - is astonishingly transparent. Even more astonishing is that the geopolitical crackerjacks in charge don’t seem to know, or care, just how transparent it is.