Friday, January 28, 2005
Middle Eastern Wild West
A quick surf through the cable news channels this morning finds them all palpitating at the spectacle of the Iraqi election this weekend. Even National Public Radio got into it this morning, with a report on Iraqi expatriates in Australia who were casting their ballots. It seems to me if they're going to let people who don't live in Iraq vote in Iraq, then all of us in the United States ought to be able to vote, too. According to Costofwar.com, every household in the country has invested more than $1440 in the war--so where's my ballot?
There has already been lots of optimistic prattling about what a turning point this represents for Iraq, and for the war effort--but the vapidness of said prattle is probably unfair to the concept of "prattle." Remember how the fall of Baghdad in April 2003 was supposed to be a sign of the end? When it wasn't, the killing of Saddam's sons became the latest sign of the end. Then it was the capture of Saddam himself. Then it was the transfer of sovereignty. Then it was the Battle of Fallujah. Each of those has been followed by more fighting and little progress. So take those failed milestones, mix them with the predictions of civil war that have been coming from informed observers for over a year, shake well--and then tell me which outcome you'd bet on following the election: the bright dawn of Iraqi democracy, or more fresh hell?
If ever there was a weekend to turn off your TV--at least the news channels--this is going to be it. Mainstream media outlets will be able to find Iraqis who are eager to vote, and who believe that the elections will, in fact, deliver what Bush promises they will. It's unlikely they'll talk to the Iraqis who believe the delegates to the National Assembly have already been chosen and the election is just a show. And they'll certainly be unable to talk to the Iraqis who are going to be blown up in attacks on polling places--attacks the United States is unable to stop.
Better you should read stories by journalists who have gone beyond the cordon sanitaire of Baghdad's Green Zone and gotten out into the country, beyond the reach of the spin doctors. Christian Parenti is one of them--he was embedded with both the 82nd Airborne and the Iraqi resistance, he hung out with Iraqi family members waiting outside Abu Ghraib for news of prisoners, and has written a book called The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq. Parenti declares the election a sham, because at least half the population lives in lawless areas where there will be no vote. Furthermore, the U.S. military is rounding up men between the ages of 18 and 40--and you can bet there will be no absentee ballots for them wherever they are detained. Out in the provinces, he says, daily life is "an extreme version of the Wild West." It's "a war of all against all," with crime, drug use, and prostitution rampant. People whose lives have been ravaged by all that won't, in all likelihood, give a damn about the election.
But don't you worry, Mr. and Mrs. America. Iraqis in Australia are voting. It won't be long before the whole place is like Connecticut, only with more sand.
A quick surf through the cable news channels this morning finds them all palpitating at the spectacle of the Iraqi election this weekend. Even National Public Radio got into it this morning, with a report on Iraqi expatriates in Australia who were casting their ballots. It seems to me if they're going to let people who don't live in Iraq vote in Iraq, then all of us in the United States ought to be able to vote, too. According to Costofwar.com, every household in the country has invested more than $1440 in the war--so where's my ballot?
There has already been lots of optimistic prattling about what a turning point this represents for Iraq, and for the war effort--but the vapidness of said prattle is probably unfair to the concept of "prattle." Remember how the fall of Baghdad in April 2003 was supposed to be a sign of the end? When it wasn't, the killing of Saddam's sons became the latest sign of the end. Then it was the capture of Saddam himself. Then it was the transfer of sovereignty. Then it was the Battle of Fallujah. Each of those has been followed by more fighting and little progress. So take those failed milestones, mix them with the predictions of civil war that have been coming from informed observers for over a year, shake well--and then tell me which outcome you'd bet on following the election: the bright dawn of Iraqi democracy, or more fresh hell?
If ever there was a weekend to turn off your TV--at least the news channels--this is going to be it. Mainstream media outlets will be able to find Iraqis who are eager to vote, and who believe that the elections will, in fact, deliver what Bush promises they will. It's unlikely they'll talk to the Iraqis who believe the delegates to the National Assembly have already been chosen and the election is just a show. And they'll certainly be unable to talk to the Iraqis who are going to be blown up in attacks on polling places--attacks the United States is unable to stop.
Better you should read stories by journalists who have gone beyond the cordon sanitaire of Baghdad's Green Zone and gotten out into the country, beyond the reach of the spin doctors. Christian Parenti is one of them--he was embedded with both the 82nd Airborne and the Iraqi resistance, he hung out with Iraqi family members waiting outside Abu Ghraib for news of prisoners, and has written a book called The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq. Parenti declares the election a sham, because at least half the population lives in lawless areas where there will be no vote. Furthermore, the U.S. military is rounding up men between the ages of 18 and 40--and you can bet there will be no absentee ballots for them wherever they are detained. Out in the provinces, he says, daily life is "an extreme version of the Wild West." It's "a war of all against all," with crime, drug use, and prostitution rampant. People whose lives have been ravaged by all that won't, in all likelihood, give a damn about the election.
But don't you worry, Mr. and Mrs. America. Iraqis in Australia are voting. It won't be long before the whole place is like Connecticut, only with more sand.
