Behind the Fraud of "Handing Over Power to the Iraqis"

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Behind the Fraud of "Handing Over Power to the Iraqis"

The media is daily carrying references to the plan to "hand over power to the Iraqis" by July.

Last spring the United States and Britain invaded Iraq, according to one estimate killing between 20,000 and 50,000 people. The US and Britain officially declared themselves to be the "occupying powers under unified command". As the US Defence Secretary put it, "we have a Coalition Provisional Authority that is the government of the country". Iraq has been occupied by around 150,000 troops ever since.

The occupation authorities set up their headquarters in the "green zone" – a heavily guarded area of closed-off streets in central Baghdad surrounded by a wall of reinforced blast-proof concrete, guarded by tanks and helicopters and under constant siege.

In September, speaking from the "green zone", the US Secretary of State said that the US wanted "a free, democratic Iraq that is a reliable friend and partner to the United States and a responsible player on the world stage". The Iraqi people were to have no choice about the future of their country.

Responding to a worsening situation, in January President Bush declared that "we're working … to prepare for a transition to full Iraqi sovereignty by the end of June".

At the same time the US Defence Secretary spoke of "the process of transferring over responsibility [of the occupation authority] to an ambassador …and the responsibilities go into an embassy of some kind, probably a beefed-up embassy".

It was revealed that the United States is planning to create its largest "embassy" in the world in Baghdad, with a staff of more than 3,000, as part of the "handover".

The US and Iraq have not had diplomatic relations since 1990. International law defines the establishment of diplomatic relations and the setting up of "embassies" as something done "by mutual consent" between sovereign, independent states.

But the US Secretary of State said, in violation of the treaty governing the role of embassies, that "the real challenge for the new embassy" would be getting Iraq ready for "full elections and full constitution" in 2005.

Meanwhile the deputy head of the US armed forces said that US military operations in Iraq were "independent of the process that’s ongoing now for elections, nonelections (sic), constitutional writing, nonconstitutional (sic) writing."

One proposal under discussion is to have a small building in Baghdad as the official US "embassy", but with most American occupation personnel remaining inside the "green zone" restyled as "diplomatic staff".

The US Defence Secretary also said he was considering replacing the three-star general currently in charge of US forces in Iraq with a four-star general as part of the "handover". The US was "working … to see that that transition is as smooth as possible and that we have the right kinds of command structures, both civilian and military".

The spokesman for the occupation authority said "the status of the American security in Iraq will move in a matter of months from occupational force to invited guest."

Contempt for the normal meaning of words and for the norms of international relations; declaring occupation forces to be "invited guests" because you rename them "diplomats"; declaring "freedom and democracy" to be what you have imposed by brutal violence: these are all of a piece with what we see daily on the "home front" – including the fraud that we are being bombarded with of "handover of power to Iraqis".