A few weeks ago I wrote a small post about "Saddamism without Saddam". This was based on reports of April 10, detailing the reported fact that, as I wrote, "U.S. authorities and their Iraqi puppets have arrested and still hold -- most without being charged -- some 17, 000 Iraqis." The original link to the story on Yahoo is now dead, but a story about it from a South African news outlet can be found here, about half way down.
Reinforcing the notion that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq and the setting up of a puppet government there, has led, and predictably enough if you pay attention to history and the patterns of U.S. behavior, to a situation where Iraq essentially is now living under a form of Saddamism without Saddam, is this Los Angeles Times story posted on Yahoo news.
The new story is pretty straightfoward. It's called "Iraqi Security Tactics Evoke the Hussein Era". Not much vagueness or pussyfooting there. In part it reads, paraphrasing statements from "defense lawyers, international organizations and Iraq's Ministry of Human Rights":
The public war on the Iraqi insurgency has led to an atmosphere of hidden brutalities, including abuse and torture, carried out against detainees by the nation's special security forces.
In other words, the new Iraq is a lot like Hussein's Iraq. And, frankly, this is only a surprise to people who don't pay attention, either because they haven't any time to pay attention or because they are so blinded by the flag and Fox News that they have no inclination to pay attention.
Either way, some still harbor fantasies that the U.S. government is serious when it says it opposes tyranny and champions human rights. Some believe it because they want the U.S. to actually be good, whatever our history, while others believe it because they're sure the U.S. is good, whatever our history. The first group will listen to appeals to reason. The second are Minutemen fodder. But there are two patterns by which you can judge these claims. One is the pattern of claims. But judging claims by a pattern of claims is like believing the Bible is the Word of God because, um, it says it is the Word of God. Kinda dumb. The other way to judge the claims is by a pattern of behavior, of actions. That is, judge the words against the actions. Which one is likely to help us understand present behavior and actions by the U.S.? I think it is clear.
What the U.S. apparently wants in Iraq is a pliable puppet system
that pretty much acts like Hussein but remains more rather than less under our control and direction.
A tad different from spreading the sweet light of democracy. But of course a veneer of democratic pretense tends to be helpful for propaganda purposes. I mean, in Iraq...
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