BUSH’S IMPOSSIBLE BENCHMARKS FOR IRAQ
Darrell Williams
September 14, 2007
From the beginning of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Bush has based his disastrous strategy on a number of false premises. These have resulted from his decision to surround himself with Bible carrying Christian advisors and greedy oil company executives. His continued ‘stay the course’ policy indicates that he has not changed his flawed premises, his unrealistic fallacies or his misconceived advisors. These advisors apparently have had from the beginning, zero understanding of the Iraqi people and their Islamic religious beliefs.
After the easy U.S. military victory of completely eliminating the Iraqi government, the Iraqi military and the Iraqi police, Bush’s aggressive nation building adventure consisted of a minimum of three objectives:
1. Establish a western style democracy.
2. Force the Iraqi people to accept a secular constitution.
3. Establish an economic system of free enterprise in which American corporations could share in the economic resources (primarily oil).
These three objectives are the basis of the so-called ‘benchmarks’ that the Bush administration is demanding of the present Iraqi government.
The flaws in these objectives are obvious to anyone except Bush and his advisors.
The first benchmark requires political reconciliation and compromise between the Shiites (who now control the government) and the Sunnis (who are the second largest sect in Iraq). The flaw in this objective is that these are not political groups, they are religious groups. While political groups may compromise, religious groups can never compromise. Bush and his advisors are trying to separate religion and state. This may be possible in a religiously diverse nation like the U.S., but it is impossible in a Muslim nation where 95% of the people belong to the same religion. The Iraqi people do not want to separate religion and state and will never allow a foreign occupier (who is a Christian) to force them to. Bush and his Christian advisors not only have failed to understand Islam in Iraq, they have failed to understand the fundamental characteristic of any religion. Every religion considers its beliefs to be the only truth and have no reason to allow any other religion to compete with them. Consequently when any religion obtains secular power they immediately use that power to eliminate all other religions. The Iraqi people do not want a western style democracy with its freedom of speech, its freedom of press, freedom of religion and the other freedoms that would require them to compromise their religion or expose their citizens and children to other beliefs. While Bush and many Americans are able to conceive of the separation of religion and state, the people of Iraq cannot. To an Iraqi Muslim it is a simple choice between obeying the laws of God (Allah) or allowing a secular government to write their own laws. The Iraqis consider the U.S. to be a materialistic nation that has abandoned God and they have no desire to be like the Americans. In the U.S., religion, government and country may be viewed as three separate things, in Iraq they are not separate but united. Because they are united, the only possible type of government is an Islamic theocracy. The only group in Iraq that wanted democratic free elections were the Shiites, because they are the majority. They knew that in a free general election they would win total control of the government and the army. This is what Bush has given the Shiites. The Shiites have been at war with the Sunnis for many centuries and will never reconcile their differences. The Shiites and Sunnis both consider each other to be unbelievers and will never allow themselves to be dominated by the other. This is exactly what Bush is asking them to do. Every day the Iraqi people clearly demonstrate that they are willing to die before they will compromise their religious beliefs. Bush’s first benchmark is impossible.
The second benchmark is also impossible. The Iraqi’s will never allow a secular constitution to be superior to the Koran or Islamic law. The present Iraqi constitution is acceptable only to the extent that it does not contradict either the Koran or Islamic law. The Iraqi people have already unanimously agreed that the supreme law of the land is the Koran. Bush continues to have the naive belief that he can replace the Koran with a secular constitution written by himself (or his Christian advisors). The U.S. may not want Iraq to have an Islamic theocracy, but there is absolutely nothing that can prevent it. The only other type of government that is possible in Iraq is the military dictatorship such as Hussein had. Either the government must control religion or religion will control the government. Bush has removed the secular dictator and given government control to the Shiite fundamentalists. If the U.S. had understood this inevitable outcome, the war probably would never have been started. The dictatorship of Hussein was bad, but not as bad as the new Shiite Islamic theocracy. Theocracies have zero tolerance. Under the new Shiite theocracy, the women of Iraq have lost all rights and freedoms they had under Hussein. The previous limitations to women’s rights were not caused by Hussein, they were caused by Islamic Law. Removing Hussein and establishing an Islamic theocracy has eliminated women’s freedoms in Iraq. Under the new Shiite government, the minority Sunnis and Kurds will experience the full revenge, retribution and possible ethnic cleansing by the Shiites. The U.S. has trained and armed both the Shiites in Baghdad and the Sunnis in Anbar province. This is only the beginning of a long deadly civil war that may never end and may spread to neighboring nations.
The third benchmark is in reality the only real reason that Bush invaded Iraq. Despite all of the great ‘God bless America’ speeches about establishing democracy in the Middle East, economics is still the only fundamental reality. The bottom line is still capitalism. The oil company CEO’s laughably have no interest in the freedoms of the Iraqi citizens. The only subject in CEO oil company board meetings is about increasing profits and acquiring Iraq oil contracts. Just prior to the 2003 U.S. invasion, Hussein was preparing to give about 60 oil contracts to non-American oil companies. This was the urgent deciding factor that rushed Bush to invade Iraq and replace him with a leader agreeable to U.S. corporate interests.
The Bush administration’s false assumptions, overconfidence and greed has destroyed Iraq. It has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and billions of wasted dollars. This Iraq war is a black mark on American history that will never be erased.
After the easy U.S. military victory of completely eliminating the Iraqi government, the Iraqi military and the Iraqi police, Bush’s aggressive nation building adventure consisted of a minimum of three objectives:
1. Establish a western style democracy.
2. Force the Iraqi people to accept a secular constitution.
3. Establish an economic system of free enterprise in which American corporations could share in the economic resources (primarily oil).
These three objectives are the basis of the so-called ‘benchmarks’ that the Bush administration is demanding of the present Iraqi government.
The flaws in these objectives are obvious to anyone except Bush and his advisors.
The first benchmark requires political reconciliation and compromise between the Shiites (who now control the government) and the Sunnis (who are the second largest sect in Iraq). The flaw in this objective is that these are not political groups, they are religious groups. While political groups may compromise, religious groups can never compromise. Bush and his advisors are trying to separate religion and state. This may be possible in a religiously diverse nation like the U.S., but it is impossible in a Muslim nation where 95% of the people belong to the same religion. The Iraqi people do not want to separate religion and state and will never allow a foreign occupier (who is a Christian) to force them to. Bush and his Christian advisors not only have failed to understand Islam in Iraq, they have failed to understand the fundamental characteristic of any religion. Every religion considers its beliefs to be the only truth and have no reason to allow any other religion to compete with them. Consequently when any religion obtains secular power they immediately use that power to eliminate all other religions. The Iraqi people do not want a western style democracy with its freedom of speech, its freedom of press, freedom of religion and the other freedoms that would require them to compromise their religion or expose their citizens and children to other beliefs. While Bush and many Americans are able to conceive of the separation of religion and state, the people of Iraq cannot. To an Iraqi Muslim it is a simple choice between obeying the laws of God (Allah) or allowing a secular government to write their own laws. The Iraqis consider the U.S. to be a materialistic nation that has abandoned God and they have no desire to be like the Americans. In the U.S., religion, government and country may be viewed as three separate things, in Iraq they are not separate but united. Because they are united, the only possible type of government is an Islamic theocracy. The only group in Iraq that wanted democratic free elections were the Shiites, because they are the majority. They knew that in a free general election they would win total control of the government and the army. This is what Bush has given the Shiites. The Shiites have been at war with the Sunnis for many centuries and will never reconcile their differences. The Shiites and Sunnis both consider each other to be unbelievers and will never allow themselves to be dominated by the other. This is exactly what Bush is asking them to do. Every day the Iraqi people clearly demonstrate that they are willing to die before they will compromise their religious beliefs. Bush’s first benchmark is impossible.
The second benchmark is also impossible. The Iraqi’s will never allow a secular constitution to be superior to the Koran or Islamic law. The present Iraqi constitution is acceptable only to the extent that it does not contradict either the Koran or Islamic law. The Iraqi people have already unanimously agreed that the supreme law of the land is the Koran. Bush continues to have the naive belief that he can replace the Koran with a secular constitution written by himself (or his Christian advisors). The U.S. may not want Iraq to have an Islamic theocracy, but there is absolutely nothing that can prevent it. The only other type of government that is possible in Iraq is the military dictatorship such as Hussein had. Either the government must control religion or religion will control the government. Bush has removed the secular dictator and given government control to the Shiite fundamentalists. If the U.S. had understood this inevitable outcome, the war probably would never have been started. The dictatorship of Hussein was bad, but not as bad as the new Shiite Islamic theocracy. Theocracies have zero tolerance. Under the new Shiite theocracy, the women of Iraq have lost all rights and freedoms they had under Hussein. The previous limitations to women’s rights were not caused by Hussein, they were caused by Islamic Law. Removing Hussein and establishing an Islamic theocracy has eliminated women’s freedoms in Iraq. Under the new Shiite government, the minority Sunnis and Kurds will experience the full revenge, retribution and possible ethnic cleansing by the Shiites. The U.S. has trained and armed both the Shiites in Baghdad and the Sunnis in Anbar province. This is only the beginning of a long deadly civil war that may never end and may spread to neighboring nations.
The third benchmark is in reality the only real reason that Bush invaded Iraq. Despite all of the great ‘God bless America’ speeches about establishing democracy in the Middle East, economics is still the only fundamental reality. The bottom line is still capitalism. The oil company CEO’s laughably have no interest in the freedoms of the Iraqi citizens. The only subject in CEO oil company board meetings is about increasing profits and acquiring Iraq oil contracts. Just prior to the 2003 U.S. invasion, Hussein was preparing to give about 60 oil contracts to non-American oil companies. This was the urgent deciding factor that rushed Bush to invade Iraq and replace him with a leader agreeable to U.S. corporate interests.
The Bush administration’s false assumptions, overconfidence and greed has destroyed Iraq. It has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and billions of wasted dollars. This Iraq war is a black mark on American history that will never be erased.