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Politics : Stop the War! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Machaon who wrote (272)	3/19/2003 3:44:33 PM
From: TigerPaw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21614

A US military governor for Iraq? Think again Firas Al Atraqchi News leaks from Washington, and published in The New York Times on 11 October 2002, indicated that the US military is preparing for a lengthy occupation of Iraq with a US military commander running the country. New York Times writers David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt said: "Iraq would be governed by an American military commander – perhaps Gen. Tommy R. Franks, commander of United States forces in the Persian Gulf, or one of his subordinates - who would assume the role that Gen. Douglas MacArthur served in Japan after its surrender in 1945." The plan, if executed, would ensure that the Iraqi Army is significantly downsized, the United States oversees Iraq's oil fields and oil and gas production, the UN oil-for-food program is expanded to pay for the occupation of Iraq, and a war crimes court is established to prosecute members of the Baath Party and senior commanders who follow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. This plan is being received with dismay by US allies, including the Iraqi opposition. In recent months, the Iraqi opposition has supported all US efforts to dislodge Saddam, but the new plan would effectively bar them from any influence or political parlay in post-war Iraq. A disgruntled Sharif Ali, alleged distant relative of Iraq's last king, seemed perplexed as the BBC asked him what he thought of the new occupation plan. He hesitated, seeming surprised by the question and said: "We would like to see a provisional Iraqi government in place and not a military occupation." Ahmed Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress opposition party in exile, appeared on MSNBC's Countdown: Iraq show. Visibly irritated, he tried to change the focus of the discussion from the potential for a US military occupation of Iraq to the need for a provisional government without US military governance. "It will take us about 18 months to two years to draw up a constitution, after which we will hold elections based on that constitution," he said. "This is not what we were told. They can't do that. The Iraqi people will not accept it and nobody else in the region will," Hamid Al Bayati, a representative of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a leading Shia-led opposition group, said of the US plan. Political and military analysts in North America believe this plan is as foolhardy as it is impractical. Henry Kissinger said he is "viscerally opposed to a prolonged occupation of a Muslim country at the heart of the Muslim world by Western nations who proclaim the right to re-educate that country." An Arab League source called the US occupation plan "simplistic" and "entirely laughable." The plan also does nothing to allay Arab, Russian and European fears that this war has nothing to do with freeing the Iraqi people, and everything to do with securing Iraq's high-grade, easily exploited oil and gas reserves. Firas Al Atraqchi is a Muslim Canadian journalist. metimes.com