Abstract

Letter From Ground Zero

The author argues that the announced intention of the U.S. government to establish a sovereign government in Iraq is not based in reality. The Iraqi struggle for independence from American rule has begun in earnest. US forces there now face a double insurrection--one part Sunni Muslim, the other Shiite Muslim--that threatens at the same time to turn into a civil war. With these events, US policy on Iraq has taken leave of reality as thoroughly as America's claims regarding weapons of mass destruction did before the war. The policy was declared on November 21, when Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, announced that on June 30 of this year the "occupation of Iraq will end," and Iraq will then enjoy "sovereignty." Since then, news commentators and officials have habitually told the public that on that date the United States "will hand over...sovereignty to the Iraqi people" (in the words of Dan Senor, a senior adviser to the CPA), who will then enjoy what is commonly called an "interim Constitution." Every word of these short phrases is based on assumptions radically at odds with the facts. "Sovereignty." 1. According to Webster's, sovereignty is "supreme power, especially over a body politic." But it is no longer possible, if it ever was, to argue that the United States and its allies wield "supreme power" in Iraq. 2. "Hand over." How can the United States "hand over" power that it has never possessed? 3. "The Iraqi people." The Iraqi people will have no involvement, whether as givers or takers of power, on June 30.