"Steve Diamond
*nhcatsteve*yahoo.com
07 Feb 2008
In the latest of his many "signing statements," George Bush has declared his intention to ignore the parts of the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act banning permanent military bases in Iraq and US control over Iraq's oil. Perhaps this didn't make it into most news outlets because it exposes only what was already known. After all, on August 31, 2005, the AP reported that George Bush said that we are still occupying Iraq for protection of the country's vast oil fields.
This Act was just the latest of half a dozen laws already on the books banning permanent US bases in Iraq and US control over Iraq's oil. It echoes continuous reassurances from every major political figure in the US and Iraq, including when Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak Al-Rubaie demanded no permanent US bases, speaking first with Dick Cheney and then CNN on October 18, 2007. Yet the pouring of concrete and welding of metal has never even slowed at US bases in every corner of Iraq. Lights burn night and day to support continuous construction at Balad Air Base, even while electricity is rationed in nearby villages.
As early as 2003, even the NY Times observed that at least 4 bases in Iraq would be used permanently by the US military. Of course, no one asked the Iraqis what they thought about this unfolding reality, because their opinion, along with the "democratic" election the US staged for them under a vast foreign military occupation, is academic.
The tortured reasoning and PR lies fed to the 160,000 US soldiers implementing this permanent occupation are that we are just staying long enough to bring peace to backward Arabs who only seem interested in fighting amongst themselves. Never mind that there was no sectarian fighting in Iraq before the US invaded for no good reason, and that the Iraqi resistance seems better at focusing on military targets than the US air force, who dropped about 7 times as many bombs on Iraq in 2007 as in 2006, killing Iraqi civilians on a daily basis.
The Bush administration mouths words of benevolence while inflicting only violence and economic piracy. The Iraqi resistance is fighting for freedom, self-determination, and an end to US colonialism. And with the rise of American dictatorship in the form of the "unitary executive," erosion of privacy, legalization of torture, and the detention of thousands (including US citizens) without charge or trial, the fight for freedom in this "land of the free" has barely begun. Americans should not be fighting abroad while freedom here at home is under attack.
—- An audio version of this commentary will be in MW #170.This work licensed under a Creative Commons license
