Iraq elections: an analysis of US foreign policy

Six weeks later, what will the results be?

Hours before the results of the Iraqi elections (held in December) are due to be released, what will the results be? And how can anyone explain the fact that in Iraq (437,000 square km and a population of just 26 million) it takes six weeks to publish election results, when in Brazil, a country measuring 8,512,000 square kilometres and with a population of 186 million, the results are known within hours?

Manipulation

The key word in the Bush regime's internal and external policy is manipulation. Just as a Bin Laden tape is bound to appear every time the Bush popularity or policy support ratings begin to wane, the manipulation of people is a constant factor in the policy pursued by the corporative elitists who dictate how Washington acts.

The manipulation of fear was a prime factor in the re-election of the Bush regime, supported by Christians who preferred to overlook the murder, the torture, the bullying, the blasphemy, the kidnappings, the practice of sodomy, sexual perversions, urinating on prisoners, defecating in food, concentration camps, lies, forgery and innumerable other revolting and despicable acts which were a mainstay of the first mandate.

The fact that it takes six weeks to publish the election results in Iraq, when in any Banana Republic somewhere hot and sticky where the votes are taken on foot to a counting room, where they are counted by hand, the whole process might be expected to last at most two weeks, three times less than in the US-dominated Iraq, raises the eyebrows of those with most goodwill. Therefore the word manipulation springs to mind again.

What has Bush done for Iraq?

Iraq used to be a stable country, ruled by a single (Ba'ath) party, like the majority of countries in the region, many of which are ruled by western-backed monarchic dictatorships. President Saddam Hussein held the country together with an iron fist, murdering those who opposed his regime.

Those who did not engage in political activities were more or less free to do what they liked. Iraq's women were perhaps the freest of all in the Moslem world, Iraq had more dentists per capita than most other countries and the government had a socially progressive policy. Nevertheless, it was a dictatorship, a brutal dictatorship and it is unacceptable that in today's world, those who were politically active against the ruling party were pursued brutally.

What has the policy of the Bush regime done for Iraq? Many things.

Firstly, it has sent society back one century in three years. Groups of armed men appear on street corners, raping and beheading women who do not use the veil. People are not free to go out into the street without fearing for their lives. The US troops abuse people in prisons and on the streets – they are not popular and nobody welcomes them with flowers, except perhaps on camera after bribes have been paid. Religion has suddenly become an issue when before, under Saddam Hussein's regime, being Sunni or Shia was a matter of personal choice, not a public statement.

The country has been destabilised. Civilians have been murdered – some 26,000 directly as a consequence of the butchery of the US forces and a further 75,000 indirectly. The country has been destroyed. US Armed Forces targeted civilian structures with military hardware, which is against the Geneva Conventions.

The election results

And what will Washington's manipulative approach to policy-making conjure up in Iraq? Hours before the results are released, let us present them here in Pravda.Ru.

The declared winnerswill begroups which gravitate around a clique of Shia clerics, who intend to impose a form of Sharia law, gradually, of course but the full extent of which is not yet known or even understood by Washington's policy makers – the corporate elitists from the energy lobby who the Bush regime has allowed to dictate its country's policy. These are the people who signed a law making it legal for men to beat wives who “misbehaved”.

Well, congratulations, Mr. Bush! In a country where Islamic extremism never existed, but now does, in a country where Islamist terrorism did not exist (although you claimed it did before denying this), it now does, in a society at peace there is now war, in a country where women could walk freely but now get raped or beheaded for not wearing the veil, seems like you hit the jackpot! No wonder your people voted for you.

A brief look at Iraq today

The Bush regime would have us believe that Iraq is now a stable democracy (although they haven't yet dared to give us the election results). Let us see.

January 1st – 7 dead in bomb attacks
January 2nd – 5 dead in bomb attack
January 3rd – US aircraft strafe family home, murdering 8 civilians, including three children and three women. Another chapter in the BANG!! Sorry! careful US military policy of near-zero civilian casualties (numbering some 26,000 directly caused by conflict and some 80,000 others)
January 4th – 55 dead in several bomb attacks
January 5th – 120 dead and 160 injured in bomb attacks. US sources claim 2 marines dead, international sources claim the number is seven. Once again, is the US counting only white, US-born soldiers?
January 7th – 5 US marines killed in Baghdad area and Fallujah
January 8th – 12 dead in helicopter crash
January 9th – 29 dead and 35 injured in bomb attacks in Baghdad
January 13th – 2 dead in US chopper crash in Mosul
January 16th – US chopper crash, Baghdad
January 18th – 10 security guards killed
January 19th – 15 dead and 26 injured in Baghdad bom attacks

270 people dead and at least 221 injured, in 2006. Hmmm, very stable.

Now let us have a look at the reports made by local residents, eye witnesses, the resistance and other sources unconfirmed by the US authorities and western sources but some of which have been confirmed by others, such as the US-backed regime in Baghdad:

Alleged deaths of US personnel unconfirmed by US or western sources:
138 more US troops killed
2 more helicopters downed
2 mercenaries killed

Unreported alleged massacres of civilians:
January 3rd: Mother, father and three children murdered in US attack on a family home in Hit.
January 13th: 18 civilians murdered in US attack on civilian homes in ar-Ramadi

Alleged Humanitatrian Atrocities:
January 8th: US troops kidnap and rape a 9-year-old Iraqi girl, left bleeding in the street. 71 children under 10 have reportedly been raped by US Armed Forces;
January 14th: US troops invade al-Anbar University, breaking into the women's dormitory, abusing students;
January 15th: 70-year old woman invalid kidnapped and abused by US troops, questioning her about her grandson

Even if one chose not to take these last three paragraphs into acount, the whole Iraq affair is a massive stain on the record of the Bush regime, which must be held to account because it was warned time and again not to make this mistake but wilfully and arrogantly decided to press ahead, through sheer greed. Now it is time to face the music.

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