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The Anti-Communitarian League: Grassroots Research & Analysis of the Ultimate Third Way

Rebuilding Iraq

by Niki Raapana revised April 19, 2004

Iraqi Resistance Report for Tuesday, 21 December 2004 Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member editorial board The Free Arab Voice.

4th Rebuilding Iraq Expo, Arbil Iraq, October 2004

Rebuilding Iraq: How the United States and United Nations Can Work Together by the United Nations of the USA and the Business Council for the United Nations.

Why the ACL includes Iraq in its research: Iraq is the Middle Eastern "model" for rebuilding reluctant Arab countries into communitarian "civil societies."

UN council okays Iraq resolution unanimously Wednesday 09 June 2004, posted by AlJazeera.net.

Iraqi citizens are being advised by U.S. Marines how to form Soviet styled Citizen Advisory Councils. Liberated Iraqis are using consensus to rebuild their neighbors into U.S. Neighborhood Watch groups who use communitarian slogans. Iraqis must now embrace the "rights and responsibilities" that Chinese freedom requires. The U.S. appointed Iraqi national council named a committee to draft an Iraqi constitution before next year's elections (U.S. history tells us our "free" people held a "constitutional convention" in 1787 where outspoken state representatives publically debated the controversial draft for two years). There is nothing (or everything) "democratic" about appointed national government councils and "selected" Iraqi community councils; rebuilt "holistic" Iraq is directed by U.S.-Israeli Third Way tag teams, reinvented "freedom-for-export" peacekeepers enforcing communitarian laws. Iraqis, Syrians, Lebanese, and Palestinian citizens might begin studying what global "sustainable development" means, if they want to get in on the real action behind their new Plans. Arabs would do well to throw away their Qur'ans and Bibles and start studying the Talmud now too... before the U.S. makes it their new Judaic-U.S. law.

USAID-Assistance for Iraq-Accomplishments: Community Action Program


Current News

Fresh Failures in Iraq by Rep. Ron Paul, June 5, 2004.

Arab TV shows GIs humiliating Iraqi detainees, U.S. general says 'no excuse' for alleged abuse The Associated Press April 30, 2004.

Send in the Wolfowitz BrigadeThe Australian 12apr04.

Iraqi Battalion Refuses to 'Fight Iraqis' by Thomas E. Ricks Washington Post Staff Writer on Sunday, April 11, 2004; Page A01.

Baghdad mayor elected by Robert Moran Knight Ridder News in the Billings Gazette on April 19, 2004. "BAGHDAD, Iraq - In a scene that coalition officials must have dreamt about for months, Iraqis lined up on Sunday to cast their ballots for the next mayor of Baghdad - sort of... But rather than a general election open to all eligible residents of this city of 5 million, 49 local government representatives assembled in a heavily guarded municipal building to choose who'll lead them in tackling the problems that plague this fabled and unwieldy metropolis.... The final approval of his selection will be made by L. Paul Bremer, the American administrator of the coalition. However, officials said Bremer is expected to give his okay after a background check."

Bremer says Iraqis won't be ready: handover of power looms AP Baghdad in the Billings Gazette April 19, 2004.

Monstrous Massacre in Fallujah - Is Miami Next? Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt must be tried for heinous war crimes by Joe Vialls, 14 April 2004. This Australian writer gives a chilling perspective on the Zionist's war against Iraq. He also has a very different version of Iraqis than we are accustomed to hearing. Mr. Vialls' Fortress Americas makes a strong case for homeland defense, and he seems to exonorate the British.

The Guardian UK--Special Reports--New nationalism that unites Iraq posted on April 11, 2004. The Guardian has numerous stories on the escalating violence in Iraq, including the latest news on the hostage situation.

US-Appointed Iraqi Government Close to Collapse? by Juan Cole, April 10, 2004 on antiwar.com. The ant-war left has an interesting role to play in bringing down the government of the U.S. The war v. peace dialectic could not exist without logical and well-presented anti-war articles. While the justification for invading Iraq was based on communist rhetoric-propaganda about spreading democracy and freedom, the anti-war movement will never address the core issue with the War on Terror objectives, which is the absurdity of U.S. leaders working with the global communists to rebuild the Arab world under Israeli-communitarian democratic principles.

An often cited "conspiracy site" created by Jeff Rense posted The Guardian UK article on 4-11-04: Israel Training US Assasination Squads in Iraq. No one else has yet been able to confirm the presence of Israeli commandos in Iraq, it has only been speculated upon. There is much verifiable evidence that Russian KGB and Israeli commandos are training US police in Urban Warfare. The leftist Guardian UK has some of the best sources in the world... why is that? And Rense's disclaimer says they are .." making this material available in its efforts to advance the understanding of environmental issues and sustainability, human rights, economic and political democracy, and issues of social justice." These are all Marxist objectives.


Iraqi elections and new constitution

Creating Democracy in Iraq? by Leonard J. Hochberg, Ph.D. and James D. Hardy, Jr., Ph.D., Senior Fellows, NMIR posted on June 19, 2003. "It is still too early to tell exactly, or even approximately, what the powers and purview of the new Political Advisory Council will be. It does, however, seem safe to say that the new council, when it officially meets in early July, will not be a precursor to the Western version of democracy, an aggressively secular regime embodying a one-person-one-vote principle and strict majority rule. Rather, it appears to be communitarian in make-up, cleverly designed to give each distinct group a voice and each substantial group an effective veto over recommendations or decrees. Every power center is to be represented but not in terms of population proportion. The Shia Arabs have fourteen seats (40 percent) on the proposed Council but comprise around 60 percent of Iraq's population; the Sunni Arabs have thirteen seats (37 percent), though they comprise between 15 percent and 20 percent of the population; and the Sunni Kurds have five seats (14 percent), though they make up only 6 percent of the population. The Sunni Turkmen minority have two seats, the Christian Assyrians, one seat, and the Christian Chaldeans, none."[emphasis added]

Iraqi politicians sign interim constitution March 8, 2004.

Iraqis Agree on Constitution by Jim Krane, AP, March 1, 2004

Aman to back US on Iraq Plan, MSNBC News site, February 19, 2004. "UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 18 - U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan will endorse the U.S. position that direct elections cannot be held in Iraq before the United States hands over political power to Iraqis on June 30, senior U.N. officials said Wednesday. The US is turning to the UN to give the Iraqi invasion "international legitimacy." Iraq's leading cleric wants direct elections but neither the US nor the UN think Iraq is ready for real "democracy." The ACL can't wait to see what kind of a solution the communist UN suggests for Iraq.

MSNBC-US offers changes in Iraqi election plan, AP January 16, 2004. "The plan was jeopardized by demands by a senior Shiite cleric that both the transfer of control in Baghdad and the extension of U.S. military peacekeeping operations be submitted to Iraqi voters in a direct election." The Iraqi's beef with the US plan? "Al-Sistani is pressing for direct, popular elections, rather than the caucuses envisioned in the U.S. plan, as the way to create Iraq's new government. But McClellan said, "here are a lot of things you'd want to have in place for those elections that are not in place at this point." According to the report, "Al-Sistani also is insisting that Iraqis should be allowed to vote on whether U.S. peacekeeping troops remained in the country after transition. Threatening the U.S. blueprint, an aide to the cleric said in Kuwait that if al-Sistani's advice was rejected, a Muslim edict would be issued to deny legitimacy to any council elected under the U.S. plan. Even some Sunnis respect the Shiite al-Sistani, said the aide, Mohammed Baqir al-Mehri." At the top of the US-UN list of potential leaders: "Ahmed Chalabi is president of the London-based Iraqi National Congress, an umbrella group of exiles. Chalabi, a Shiite, relies on close ties to the Pentagon. He was convicted in absentia for bank fraud by Jordan in 1992."


Global Democratic Revolution

The Dangers of "democratizing" Islam and Muslim Political Discourse, By Iqbal Siddiqui, [Crescent International, June 16-30, 2000.]

On November 9, 2003, The Sunday Herald reported Bush gave a "ringing message to the American people" in a speech before the National Endowment For Democracy, saying "The establishment of a free Iraq at the heart of the Middle East will be a watershed event in the global democratic revolution." Global democratic revolution has its roots in Marxism, as is explained by Martin Shaw in his 1999 paper Social democracy in the unfinished global revolution. (Shaw also gives us a nice explanation of how the "Third Way" fits into the modern version of the global revolution). Vladimar Lenin was another proponent of the global democratic revolution, he wrote all about it in his 1905 Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution. We think Lenin would be very proud of George Bush Jr. today.

Alternatives to Iraqi Council Eyed, Inaction of Hand-Picked Baghdad Officials Frustrates Washington , By Robin Wright and Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post Staff Writers, Sunday, November 9, 2003; Page A01. "The United States is deeply frustrated with its hand-picked council members because they have spent more time on their own political or economic interests than in planning for Iraq's political future, especially selecting a committee to write a new constitution, the officials added. "We're unhappy with all of them. They're not acting as a legislative or governing body, and we need to get moving," said a well-placed U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "They just don't make decisions when they need to.""

Iraq's Local Agenda 21 Plan. This UN plan for rebuilding Iraq was last updated in 1998, before the latest Joint US-British-Israeli Operation Freedom invasion.

Statement on the International Monetary Fund's Staff Macroeconomic Assessment of Iraq, Delivered by Lorenzo Perez, IMF Mission Chief for Iraq to the International Donors' Conference for the Reconstruction of Iraq Madrid, October 23, 2003.

U.S.-Appointed Iraqi Council Names New Cabinet , Additional Reporting By Sobhi Haddad, IOL Correspondent, September 1, 2003, Islam Online.

Neighborhood plans watch Submitted by: I Marine Expeditionary Force, Story Identification Number: 20038512321,Story by Sgt. Mike Sweet,AN NAJAF, Iraq(July 22, 2003). "With help from the governate support team working with 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, based in 29 Palms, Calif., residents of the Mukrama neighborhood kicked off its first meeting of the Jameial Al-Noor Al-khairia, a community group modeled after neighborhood watch groups in the United States. "

COALITION PROVISIONAL AUTHORITY, BAGHDAD, IRAQ, REGARDING INTERIM ADVISORY COUNCILS, June 31, 2003: "Iraq is leaving behind the regime of Saddam Hussein and heading for a representative government. It will take time, however, to establish a representative government freely elected under a duly ratified constitution and supported by electoral laws, including voter registration regulations. For now, we want to work with as broad and representative a segment of the population as possible. As one step in this process, coalition authorities are working with the people of Baghdad to form an Interim Citizen Advisory Council system." Hrmmm... these Iraqi Neighborhood Councils select from their voluntary membership which members will "represent" the newly re-built community at the District Level. Iraq is "heading for a representative government," eh? One can only imagine the criteria used in the selection process. If I was barred from participating on Citizen Councils here in the good old USA, the heart of the fully exportable "new democracy"... what chance does an Iraqi "citizen" (aka "comrade") have of being selected to represent their neighborhood unless they embrace and toot the new Third Way-USA-Israeli Party line?

Iraq Local Government Project June 19, 2003, Policy guidance from OCPA (through USAID) Build on field based information obtained by Disaster Assistance Response Teams (DART) and Civil Affairs (CA) personnel.


Iraq facts

Iraq already has a constitution. Constitution of the Kingdom of Iraq (1925)

Iraq's History and Culture From Noah to the Present

Care Donors' Conference on Reconstruction in Iraq. Care members discuss Iraqi needs for building capacity and strengthening "civil society."

Cost of the War in Iraq
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Asia Weblog Awards 2003: Best Iraqi Blog. Nordica liked them all but her top two favorites are A Family in Baghdad and Baghdad Burning. She's started corresponding with Khaled, a young student who writes very good English. We may begin posting some of his writings here. These are fine insider's view of the rebuilding in Baghdad.

Bush Flash- Thanks for the Memories takes a few minutes to load but this artists' flash rendition of the War on Iraq packs a punch in a most creative way. Too bad it's such a flagrant Democratic Party site that thinks there's ANY difference between the dmocrats and the GOP. When will our most creative Americans get OUT of the dialectic?

As of November 2003, 400 Americans have died in Operation Iraqi Freedom and between 11,000 and 15,000 Iraqis have died including 30% civilian casualties, according to figures posted by Christopher Allbritton, former AP and New York Daily News reporter.


Various views on Rebuilding Iraq

Keep the United Nations out of Iraq- and America by U.S. Congressman Ron Paul, April 28, 2003.

Moving Targets, by Seymour Hersh, New Yorker Magazine, 12-15-03. “The only way we can win is to go unconventional. We’re going to have to play their game. Guerrilla versus guerrilla. Terrorism versus terrorism. We’ve got to scare the Iraqis into submission.”

"Rebuilding Iraq to start quickly,"By Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY, 3/20/2003.

Ramsey Clark Says America Should Pay Full Tab for Rebuilding Iraq, By Steve Brown, CNSNews.com Staff Writer, September 04, 2003

Why the U.S. Will Never Win Unconventional War in Iraq , by Ramsey Baroud, Editor-in-Chief, Palestinian Chronicle.

President Bush's speech on October 9th before the New Hamsphire folks explains the role of US democracy building in Iraq: "Our goal in Iraq is to leave behind a stable, self-governing society, which will no longer be a threat to the Middle East or to the United States. We're following an orderly plan to reach this goal. Iraq now has a Governing Council, which has appointed interim government ministers. Once a constitution has been written, Iraq will move toward national elections. We want this process to go as quickly as possible -- yet it must be done right. The free institutions of Iraq must stand the test of time. And a democratic Iraq will stand as an example to all the Middle East. We believe -- and the Iraqi people will show -- that liberty is the hope and the right of every land." [emphasis added] The ACL appreciates the President's assurance that our hunches were correct, and that Iraq has a much bigger role to play in the globalists' game. Iraq's only hope for liberty may be to push for creating a true republican nation... one that elects representatives to draft a constitution that must be ratified by a majority of local votes. As Thomas Paine explains: "A government on the principles on which constitutional governments, arising out of society, are established, cannot have the right of altering itself. If it had, it would be arbitrary." (The Rights of Man, 1791) Is this new Iraqi government arising from society, or is it arbitrary?

Reinventing Iraq will require bureaucratic overhaul, By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. and Corine Hegland, National Journal, GovExec.com.


Carpetbagger Jobs in Iraq

Rebuilding Iraq-- the Contractors at opensecrets.org.

The $87 Billion Money Pit "It's the boldest reconstruction project since the Marshall Plan. And we cannot afford to fail. But where are the billions really going?" By Rod Nordland and Michael Hirsh in NEWSWEEK, Nov. 3, at MSNBC.com. Questioned about why the work to restore Iraqs power is going so slowly, "Bechtel spokesman Howard Menaker says Iraq's power has to be viewed as "a holistic system..""

First Iraqi Temp Services is advertising itself as THE place to go to get in on all the opportunities available in Iraq now due to reconstruction. The Polish based employment service has this to say:1.Why Poland? Poland is one of four countries to have sent troops to Iraq. Poland is a small but brave country, not as lazy and cowardly as France or Germany. Because of Poland's contribution to the war effort in Iraq President Bush awarded Poland with a big piece of that "rebuilding" cake. Companies and personnel from Poland operate on Iraqi soil with equal financial opportunities compared to their U.S., British or Australian counterparts. Poland will also be awarded its own " Stabilisation Zone", which will probably be the "Upper South Zone" including Al-Kut and Babilon. 4000 Polish troops are expected to "help Iraqis restore democracy".


Amerikan-Communist-UN plans for Iraq

Ukaz, the site of communitarian agonism

Creating Democracy in Iraq?

Communitarian Europe

European Community Divergent paths and common values in Old Europe and the United States by Michael Novak for the National Review.

Tony Blair Proposed a "Third Way" government for Iraq on Feb 10, 2003.

CESJ has a "Third Way" plan for Iraq: A NEW MODEL OF NATION-BUILDING FOR CITIZENS OF IRAQ Executive Summary,April 11, 2003.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace posted the "Real Plan for Rebuilding Iraq," from the International Herald Tribune on March 3, 2003, by Marina Ottaway.

EU ministers Debate Role in Rebuilding Iraq posted Friday, May 2, 2003 by Reuters: News and Financial Intelligence from the World Leader.

Bloomberg.com posted UN Should Play `Vital Role' in Rebuilding Iraq, Japan, EU Say By Daisuke Takato, May 2, 2003.

Peace Action's latest news on Iraq-12-15-03

Peace Action wants us to "Support UN Leadership in Reconstructing Iraq."

Communist Party in Iraq Plans Comeback by Slobodan Lekic, Publisher/Date: Associated Press (US), May 30, 2003.


The War on Iraq

U.S. Army's Operation Iraqi Freedom.

NBC News reported September 12, 2003 how the U.S. military mistakenly killed eight Iraqi police and one Jordanian security guard. Martin Savidge reported on CNN back in April 2003 that "Public might not trust ex-police".

Address by Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III, Chief Administrator in Iraq, World Economic Forum, Jordan, June 22, 2003:" After thirty years of totalitarian rule, the people of Iraq are free. In the last few months, they have begun to enjoy life on their own terms, and also started to embrace the responsibilities that freedom entails. Iraqi citizens have joined neighborhood watch groups, helping the Coalition make Baghdad's streets safer. They have joined district advisory councils, making the first steps towards a vibrant civil society. Along with Coalition combat forces, more than 30, 000 Iraqi police officers, an increase of over 200 percent in the past 30 days, are working to establish the rule of law throughout the country."


"Plenty good money to be made, supplying the Army with the tools of its trade.."

Halliburton scores big off Iraq: Size, scope of work greater than previously disclosed, by Michael Dobbs, THE WASHINGTON POST, august 28, 2003. "Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President Cheney, has won contracts worth more than $1.7 billion out of Operation Iraqi Freedom and stands to make hundreds of millions more dollars under a no-bid contract awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to newly available documents."

J.P. Morgan picked for Iraq trade bank Treasury Dep. says the U.S. bank has been chosen to operate the Trade Bank of Iraq. at CNN.com, August 29, 2003

ABC News reported March 11, 2003 "Rebuilding IraqPostwar, Some Iraqi Troops Could Be on U.S Payroll," By John McWethy

NBC6.net South Florida reported March 12, 2003, Europe Could Withhold Funds For Rebuilding Iraq, by NBC6 News Team.

The Mercury News posted on April 30, 2003: "France ready to help in rebuilding Iraq," By KIM HOUSEGO, Associated Press

The Boston Globe listed the Iraqi libraries destroyed so far, announcing it's Reconstruction Time Again on April 21, 2003.

New Iraq may recognize Israel, bring financial relief, by DOUGLAS DAVIS, Jerusalem Post Service, posted at the Jewish Bulletin News.

Business Intelligence for Reconstruction Efforts in Iraq for a mere $1495 a year! What a bargain, considering the potential return.

Teaching The New American Century

Vice President Cheney's Speech to the Veterans of Foreign wars,August 26, 2002, presented by Project for a New American Century (PNAC),in a MEMORANDUM TO: OPINION LEADERS FROM: WILLIAM KRISTOL.

The Clash of Civilizations?, by Samuel P. Huntington, Foreign Affairs, Summer 1993. Full text online at the Course home page for POLS 103 World Politics, Dr. Aron G. Tannenbaum, Lander University.


Here's a great forward from Peter Myers:

SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak17.html

Coinciding with the Bush administration's tough talk about Syria, a senior Israeli official Monday exposed a smoking gun. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the Tel Aviv newspaper Maariv: ''We have a long list of issues we are thinking of demanding of the Syrians, and it would be best done through the Americans.''

Mofaz's Hebrew-language interview was not widely distributed in Washington, but a few members of Congress who learned of it were stunned by its audacity. With Prime Minister Ariel Sharon long having urged changing Iraq's regime by force of U.S. arms, his government now hopes to ride the emerging American imperium to regional reconstruction along Israeli lines.

That is the goal of prominent Pentagon civilian officials who see virtual identity between U.S. and Israeli interests. Sharon's hopes for his agenda are buoyed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's emergence. Vindicated by the spectacular success of American arms, Rumsfeld is the strongman of the Bush Cabinet who is directing the postwar transformation of the Middle East.

Gen. Mofaz, a career officer before becoming defense minister last October, is a plain-spoken paratrooper who has now revealed his country's grand design of riding American power to reach old goals. While Israel's military is the region's strongest, it has been unable to achieve Mofaz's long, unspecified wish list: removal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, ending Syrian support of anti-Israeli terrorist groups and effective Syrian disarmament. The biggest political-military failure in Israel's brief history was its Lebanese intervention.

Israel's goals conceivably can be ''done through the Americans'' in the wake of the awesome U.S. military performance. Syria's Bashar Assad is unlikely to follow Saddam Hussein's suicidal course of confrontation with Washington. Not supplied militarily by Moscow since the end of the Cold War, Syria's armed forces look weaker than Iraq's.

The problem is how to justify pressuring Syria. If it was hard to prove Iraq a clear danger to the United States, making the case for Syria is much tougher. After the fall of Baghdad, warnings to Damascus were based on unverified complaints that weapons of mass destruction and Iraqi leaders had crossed the porous Iraqi-Syrian border. ''There is no evidence,'' Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said last week, that such weapons were taken out of Iraq.

Syria for a decade or more has been building its own chemical weapons, apparently as a puny counterweight against Israel's nuclear arsenal. Actually, military experts do not consider them weapons of mass destruction. Nor does their possession violate international law since Syria has never signed the chemical weapons ban treaty.

But President Bush is not invoking international law, as he did when seeking United Nations sanction for military intervention in Iraq.''Syria just needs to cooperate with us,'' the president said Sunday, without citing international authority.

Secretary of State Colin Powell muffled war drums a little Tuesday, telling reporters: ''There is no war plan right now to attack somewhere else.'' However, neither Bush nor Rumsfeld made any such assurance. Furthermore, the Joint Chiefs of Staff two weeks ago ordered the U.S. European Command to prepare a plan for Syria.

All this has frightened Syria and the entire Arab world. That was the intent of Rumsfeld but not Powell, who wants a postwar return to diplomacy by the president. Powell's principal asset is Bush's ''roadmap'' for coexisting Jewish and Palestinian states, a concept not popular with the Sharon government or its friends at the Pentagon. Arabs are skeptical, perceiving a road map that leads to fruitless, endless negotiations.

Nothing has so demonstrated to Arabs their political impotence than Rumsfeld's selection of retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner as Iraq's interim military governor. Now a defense contractor, he helped develop the Arrowmissile-defense system for Israel. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Garner visited Israel as guest of the hard-line Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs and signed that organization's letter praising Sharon's treatment of Palestinians.

''Out of the 270 million Americans,'' said Syrian Deputy Ambassador Imad Moustapha on NBC's ''Meet the Press'' Sunday, ''you choose a military ruler to rule Iraq who is closely related to the extremist factions in Israel.''

That is the price of losing the clash of civilizations, when you appear to be the next target.

--Peter Myers, 21 Blair St, Watson ACT 2602, Australiahttp://users.cyberone.com.au/myers ph +61 2 62475187

And another forward from Peter:

Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 19:59:40 -0700 From: "William"

'The Islamic Republic of Iraq?'

By Firas Al-Atraqchi

May 13, 2003

(YellowTimes.org) The Islamic Republic of Iraq is becoming more of a reality with every passing day of lawlessness and civil disorder in Iraq. This is not the ranting of naysayers, or the defunct liberals who seek to find some fault with U.S. President George Bush's Iraq scenario. The likelihood of an Islamic Republic is voiced by a majority of Iraqis. Indeed, there are those that would prefer secularism, especially religious minorities such as the Chaldeans, Assyrians, and other Christians who number up to 800,000 in Iraq.

However, the momentum of political Islam began some 1,400 years ago and began to take on its present shape after the 1991 Gulf War. While much of this flux is being propagated by organized Shiite groups, it does envelope Sunni factions as well. ...

The above is a very likely scenario because U.S. foreign policy and the planning for post-war Iraq were influenced by external forces that were simply out of touch with the reality of Iraqi religious aspirations. Somuch planning, effort, disinformation, public relations, and diplomacy were put into the war effort, that the post-war religious power that would likely emerge in Iraq was completely overlooked. Members of the Iraqi National Congress, the main Iraqi opposition group, (with much influence in the Pentagon, but regarded with disdain in the State Department for its unreliable track record) assured the Bush administration that the Shiites of Iraq would rise up against Saddam, fight side by side with U.S. forces and welcome them with flowers. Despite urgent efforts by mainstream media to portray the latter, the information relayed by Iraqis in and outside Iraq is clearly unfavorable to U.S. efforts to establish a democratic state in Iraq.

Al-Hakim's return to Iraq is compared by many Middle Eastern analysts (not Washington think tanks who are not in the Middle East and rely only on Israeli sources) to the Ayatollah Khomeini's return to Iran in 1979.

[Firas Al-Atraqchi, B.Sc (Physics), M.A. (Journalism and Communications), is a Canadian journalist with eleven years of experience covering Middle East issues, oil and gas markets, and the telecom industry.]

Firas Al-Atraqchi encourages your comments: fatraqchi@YellowTimes.org


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