Democracy denied (again) in Iraq
I note that today it is 35 days since the Iraqi people went to the polls to vote for the National Assembly.
The US government, which is the occupying power in Iraq, also claims it is a strong advocate for democratic rule (equals "rule by the people") everywhere. Yet the voting system put in place by the US, this time, as in the elections of January 2005, has more or less guaranteed that sectarian/ethnic parties would predominate and has made it very hard indeed for these parties to form a government.
Democracy, I repreat, is rule by the people being governed. It has nothing to do with rule by an occupying military power. At its base is the concept of national self-determination. The US military and political bodies in the country have no legitimacy to have any say in running a democratic Iraq. They must plan to leave the country with all possible haste.
In the meantime, their presence and their machinations are yet further delaying the formation of a governing administration in Iraq that is accountable to the country's people.
It is now 35 days since the election. I'll have to dig out the HTML for the "Democracy denied in Iraq" counter I used to have on my sidebar here, and put it up again. How many days (or weeks, or months) more till Iraqis achieve true self-governance?
The US government, which is the occupying power in Iraq, also claims it is a strong advocate for democratic rule (equals "rule by the people") everywhere.
What’s a joke....., Yah it all about Democracy and security.
US can not built Iraq because of the security situations in Iraq.
Another Gung hold the Bank “Iraq” after Saddam Gang
Agents from the inspector general's office found that the living and working quarters of American occupation officials were awash in shrink-wrapped stacks of $100 bills, colloquially known as bricks.
One official kept $2 million in a bathroom safe, another more than half a million dollars in an unlocked footlocker. One contractor received more than $100,000 to completely refurbish an Olympic pool but only polished the pumps; even so, local American officials certified the work as completed. More than 2,000 contracts ranging in value from a few thousand dollars to more than half a million, some $88 million in all, were examined by agents from the inspector general's office. The report says that in some cases the agents found clear indications of potential fraud and that investigations into those cases are continuing.
Audit Describes Misuse of Funds in Iraq Projects
By JAMES GLANZ
Published: January 25, 2006
Kurds say Bremer misused their funds
11/27/2005
Latimes
KurdishMedia.com
Authority officials rapidly doled out the money, including $12 billion from the U.N. fund paid in cash, as they scrambled to restore vital services and impose order in Iraq. Concerns that contracts weren't being sufficiently monitored led Congress to create the office of the special inspector general and vest it with powers to investigate money misspent or unaccounted for by the Authority. President Bush named as the special inspector general Stuart Bowen Jr., who had been the Authority's own inspector general.
Some Iraq Rebuilding Funds
Go Untraced
Investigators Have Yet to Pursue
U.S. Contracting Money That May Be Missing
By SCOT J. PALTROW
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
January 17, 2006; Page A4
Actually, my counting was really awry. At that point (Jan. 25) it was 41 days since the Iraqi election.