NORMALIZING WAR

Limited self-criticism in the White House. Bush and Blair admit mistakes in Iraq without questioning the occupation

By Rudiger Gobel

[This article published in: Junge Welt, 5/27/2006 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, www.jungewelt.de/2006/05-27/001.php.]

Except for the torture pictures from Abu Ghraib, their Iraq policy in principle would be a success story. However there is a flaw in the armed democratization program. To take the wind from the sails of domestic critics of war and occupation in the Tigris-Euphrates land, US president George W. Bush and British premier Tony Blair met on Thursday in Washington for a little discussion about mistakes. Self-criticism was the command of the hour in the White House. The basic course in Iraq along with the presence of more than 130,000 occupation soldiers was defended absolutely. Commander-in-chief Bush – despite all the setbacks – insisted, “We did the right thing.”

In Iraq, according to Bush’s statements, the many soldiers are necessary for a victory – a victory he proclaimed three years ago. However he admitted: “Everything has not developed as we hoped.” To the president, only one aspect from the general terror of the occupation seemed worth criticizing: the torture scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison has damaged the US. “We will pay for this for a long time,” Bush admitted. The large majority of the Iraqi population is afflicted by the inadequate supply of water and electricity, the collapse of the health system and the daily terror on the streets. This daily terror has persisted for three years. The pictures from the torture hell are the tip of the iceberg of an occupation hated nationwide.

Bush pretended to be a language critic. In the past, his statements about Iraq and actions against resistance fighters were repeatedly coarse. “I learned my lesson, that I should speak in a more sophisticated way,” Bush said after the meeting with Blair. “`Wanted dead or alive’ was wrongly understood in certain parts of the world.” The US learned from its mistakes and adjusts its methods. Blair explained that the “coalition armed forces,” as the occupation troops are described, had underrated the strength of the “insurgents” as the resistance groups in Iraq are commonly slandered. The main reason for the problems of the British and US troops in Iraq is the determination to win of resistance fighters.

Bush and Blair defended the basic decision for Saddam Hussein’s overthrow and “democratization” of the Tigris-Euphrates land. Both argued that occupied Iraq “is on the right way today.” With the governmental organization in Bagdad, the country is on the good path of stabilization and national reconciliation, Bush said. Despite the three hard years “in which not everything developed as we expected and hoped,” the ambitious program of the Iraqi premier Nuri A, Maliki now gives hope for a positive development.

As announced on Friday, at least nine persons were killed in attacks. In Baakuba, the corpses of five Iraqis were discovered. On Thursday, US soldiers found corpses riddled with bullets in Tikrit. Death squads of the Iraqi interior ministry were responsible for the executions. These death squads were originally called into being by the occupiers to fight against the resistance groups.