Backdoor Money

Bill O’Reilly said something along the lines of, with an eyebrow cocked, that the Democrats have suffered from the success of the Iraqi elections – that it’s a victory for Bush. Half of Hannity and Colmes has essentially consisted of making fun of Democrats and commenting on how wrong they obviously are now.

I certainly acknowledge that it’s great for the Iraqi people and I felt genuine happiness at the idea that they had their elections finally, and it went off fairly well.

However it does not change the fact that Democrats should be equally happy today with the resignation of Rumsfeld’s chief policy advisor, Mr. Douglas J. Feith, the third-ranking civilian in the Pentagon, and the author of the intelligence recommendations to the Whitehouse that led them to believe in the invisible WMDs.

“Is it possible to agree with the results but not the road that got us there?” Colmes asked Lieberman on Sunday night.

“Nobody of any credibility wants us to pull out,” said Lieberman. “This is a day when the classic liberals… ought to be thrilled, because millions of people who lived under dictators came out to vote. … I wish there was less carping about the past and more unity…” he said, as he went on to suggest that we should all get behind the Bushies now and take it up the ass.

Furthermore, the presence of an Iraqi government that has been elected by a mostly free election, does not obviate the possibility that most of Iraq’s oil is now being controlled by the US. Are Iraqi-owned companies and the people of Iraq going to profit from the oil, or will US companies mainly profit?

In any case, the elections JUST happened, and there is really no sense in immediately declaring the thing a total success and such a historic moment. That very well may be, but tomorrow the sun will rise on the same Iraq that has seen some of its highest casualty levels of the war that have been happening so far.

Further, the Iraqi people do not have democracy. Rather, they have more like a republic, like what we have in the USA, with an elected body that is now putting a prime minister in place. Inevitably now, international corporations like McDonald’s and everything else will start coming. Inevitably now, the people have handed their futures off to an elite group of politicians and corporations, where, just like in the USA, backdoor money, expensive political dinners, large donations, and a political/corporate elite will hold all the power.

What will happen when Iraq enters an economic depression while foreign corporations control their oil? What will happen to that new government we so cherish now?

I hope all the best. But I think it a bit premature to judge the lasting impact of this, and perhaps it is best not to assume it has no chance of failure, like the Titanic setting out to sea. Perhaps it is best not to assume that, suddenly, from here, everything will go as expected, unlike earlier in the war, where nothing has gone as expected.