(Note to literalists: the Watched column presently contains only a smattering of 'warblogs' because the facilitator of the template-change--Dr. Menlo--is not very familiar with them, and will be adding more as they are sent to him. Also, this blog may contain areas of allusion, satire, subtext, context and possibly even a dash of the surreal: wannabe lit-crits beware.)
Control
[Watch this space for: Pentagon and Petroleum, The Media is only as Liberal as the Corporations Who Own Them, Wash Down With, and Recalcify]
Meanwhile, I wonder where all those celebrities who seemed to care so much about the Iraqi people when they were opposing the war have disappeared to now that it’s won. Shouldn’t they be organizing benefit concerts or something? Or was it all just posturing? The postwar era will be a test for American diplomacy and administrative skills. But it’ll be a test for some other people, too.
We'll see the level of solidarity the anti-war movement musters in the weeks to come, but the administration that so awes The Professor has so far performed as an historically conscious proctor would have predicted:
Hay Al Ansar, on the outskirts of Najaf in Iraq, was glad to be rid of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party government, when the city was seized by US forces last week.
But they appear to be just as terrified, if not more so, of their new rulers - a little-known Iraqi militia backed by the US special forces and headquartered in a compound nearby.
The Iraqi Coalition of National Unity (ICNU), which appeared in the city last week riding on US special forces vehicles, has taken to looting and terrorising their neighbourhood with impunity, according to most residents.
"They steal and steal," said a man living near the Medresa al Tayif school, calling himself Abu Zeinab. "They threaten us, saying: 'We are with the Americans, you can do nothing to us'."
Sa'ida al Hamed, another resident, said she witnessed looting by the ICNU and other armed gangs in the city, which lost its police force when the government fled last week. One man told a US army translator on Monday that he was taken out of his house and beaten by ICNU forces when he refused to give them his car. They took it anyway.
If true, the testimony of residents reveals a darker side to US policy in Iraq. In their distaste for peacekeeping and eagerness to hand the ruling of Iraq back to Iraqis, US forces are in danger of losing the peace as rapidly as they have won the war.
US special forces said they were looking into the complaints, which had been passed to them by US military sources. They declined, however, to discuss the formation of the group, how its members were chosen, or who they were.
The head of the ICNU, who says he is a former colonel in the Iraqi artillery forces who has been working with the underground opposition since 1996, announced on Tuesday that he was acting mayor of Najaf, and his group had taken over administration of the city.
Other Iraqi exiles, brought in by the CIA and US special forces to help assemble a local government over the next few days, say the militia is out of control.
"They are nobody, and nobody has ever heard of them, all they have is US backing," said an Arab journalist.
Winning hearts and minds, indeed.
Perhaps it would have been more prudent for Instapuppet to ask whether Bush et al will pay for the post-war reconstruction as they should, or whether they'll bill the Iraqi people (via a confiscation of oil resources) for the war. posted by Anonymous11:36 AM
• • • • •
The Watchers
WBW: Keeping track of the war exhortations of the warbloggers.
