Monday, June 07, 2004

Iraqi sovereignty

If you've been reading YWA, you know that I think Bush uses a different dictionary than I do. In this particular case, we don't agree on the definition of the word "sovereignty".

U.S. President George W. Bush said in Paris Saturday the interim Iraqi government will be able to determine its security needs.

"Absolutely," Bush told a joint news conference with French President Jacques Chirac. "That's the definition of sovereignty." source


Now let's look at the agreement Russia is having trouble with over at the UN. There are two problems here. Okay, there are lots of problems, but for this particular concern, there are two. One is that it obviously contradicts George's assurance to Chirac, and two, as usual, we're having trouble with the definition of sovereignty.

Powell made clear the US military still would have the right to jail Iraqis, despite an outcry in Iraq and around the world over abuse of Iraqi prisoners in US-run jails.

His letter says the US military could intern suspects "where this is necessary for imperative reasons of security ..."

...US Ambassador Negroponte said the [Allawi and Powell] letters clearly showed "the full sovereignty" of Iraq was being respected.
  Aljazeera article

Respect. I would have said Negroponte uses George's dictionary, but that word isn't in it.

I can't help but think that the right of a foreign power to arrest your citizens is a pretty big indication that you don't have sovereignty. But maybe that's just me.

Whatever the agreements are, whether the IGC 2.0 is an American puppet administration or not, the first order of business for Americans is to recognize the truth of the matter. Go along with it if you will, but stop trying to fool yourself about it. Somebody is demanding sovereignty, or they wouldn't keep throwing that word out there. This is not sovereignty, and any American who buys this kind of crap deserves George Bush for preznit and all his lying, manipulating, honorless cohort to boot.

The catch is, there's the rest of us living here who don't.