Baghdad Burning by Riverbend

Author:Riverbend
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY
Published: 2018-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

FOOD …

I updated the Is Something Burning?! (http://iraqrecipes.blogspot.com/) page and have added it to my sidebar. posted by river @ 5:27 AM

Thursday, November 13, 2003

IRAQI GOVERNING COUNCIL …

I have to post this fast. The electrical situation has been hellish today. There’s no schedule … in our area the electricity is on 30 minutes for every two hours of no electricity. People suspect it’s a sort of punishment for what happened in Nassiryah this morning and the bombings in Baghdad this last week. There were also some huge explosions today—the troops got hit by mortars, I think, and retaliated by bombing something.

Also, Mohammed Bahr Ul-Iloom was shot at today. Bahr Ul-Iloom is one of the Sh’ia clerics (a “rotating president”) and the father of the Minister of Oil. He was unharmed, it seems, but his driver is wounded. While I’m sure Bahr Ul-Iloom would love to blame it on loyalists, Ba’athists and Al-Qaeda, the shots actually came from American troops—it was a “mistake.” Oops.

Bremer is currently in Washington, explaining why the Governing Council are completely useless. The Washington Post article on the diminishing popularity of the Governing Council came as no surprise:

The United States is deeply frustrated with its hand-picked council members because they have spent more time on their own political or economic interests than in planning for Iraq’s political future, especially selecting a committee to write a new constitution, the officials added. (“Alternatives to Iraqi Council Eyed,” Washington Post, November 9, 2003 http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A17199-2003Nov8&notFound=true)

I think it’s safe to say that when you put a bunch of power-hungry people together on a single council (some who have been at war with each other), they’re going to try to promote their own interests. They are going to push forward their party members, militias and relatives in an attempt to root themselves in Iraq’s future.

Bremer noted that at least half the council is out of the country at any given time and that at some meetings, only four or five members showed up (“Alternatives to Iraqi Council Eyed,” Washington Post, November 9, 2003 http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A17199-2003Nov8&notFound=true).

Of course they’re outside of the country—many of them don’t have ties in it. They have to visit their families and businesses in Europe and North America. For some of them, it sometimes seems like the “Governing Council” is something of an interesting hobby—a nice little diversion in the monthly routine: golf on Saturdays, a movie with the family in London on Fridays, a massage at the spa on Tuesdays, and, oh yes—nation-building for 5 minutes with Bremer on the Xth of each month.

People here never see them. Most live in guarded compounds and one never knows what country they are currently in. For example, Chalabi is presently missing. I haven’t seen him on the news for … I don’t know how long. If anyone has seen him, please send an email—I’m dying to know what he’s up to.

I can imagine Bremer preparing for a meeting with the pioneers of Iraqi democracy, the pillars of liberty … the Iraqi Puppet Council.

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