Sunday, February 06, 2005

Responding to Michael Enright

Toronto, Ontario
43°40' North; 79°22' West


Today, in his opening commentary on CBC's Sunday Morning, the esteemed Mr. Enright stated that the reasons for the Bush Adminsistration's invasion of Iraq no longer matter because 60% of Iraqis braved death to vote passionately last week for Democracy. He also said that the 'self-righteous' who have opposed the war have been forced to, at least in part, eat their words.

Now, we would like to respond to Mr. Enright's conclusions, not by quibbling about media manipulation-driven perceptions, which we believe are significant, but instead by challenging his major assumption - specifically that it was a vote for a Bush Doctrine-imposed 'Freedom'.

Here's the way will frame it - let's say a huge military force invades your country promising to make things better for you, your family, your friends and your community. Let's say that force deposes a dictator that you had much reason to despise, fear and revile, mainly because of your religion and ethnicity which is in the majority and which has long been oppressed.

Of course you might be inclined to embrace that invading force.

But lets' say that over a period of 21 months that invading force steadily makes life worse for you, your family, your friends and your community. First they destroy the entire infrastructure of your country in an effort to build a huge Laissez-Faire Honeytrap for incoming Multinationals; simultaneously, everyone you know or have known loses their job and everyone is plunged into immediate shock therapy-induced poverty; then they install first one puppet that at least has some affinity for both your religion and ethnicity, but when that puppet fails they install a second puppet who was aligned with the former dictator and who carries out an atrocity immediately after his rule is imposed to demonstrate that he is, indeed, a strongman; then they write an interim constitution that ensures that the Multinationals who are starting to balk will stay and keep control of everything, including the oil; then they start to crackdown on local leaders of your religion and ethnicity who try to get the electricity on, the sewers fixed, and the schools open; then they tell you there will not be elections because they are afraid of your religion and ethnicity; then they start to kill you, your family, your friends and your community; and then you find out that they have been, and are continuing to, torture your countrymen, your countrywomen and your children; throughout it all, the minions of what you have begun to perceive as the new Oppressor have retreat behind walled-in, exclusionary safe-zones where you are not allowed to go while at the same time continuing plans to install permanent military bases of occupation; and finally, the new Oppressor brings in an even Newer Ambassador who, as he has done before half a world away, begins to help the Puppet set-up a security appartus that will be truly chilling in both its reach and ferocity.

And then after all this, while you get less and less electricity everyday, while families are gunned down at 'checkpoints', while your water is turned off more and more often, and while food rations begin to shrink, a Cleric who oversees your religion and ethnicity forces the New Oppressor to have an election.

And so, you do what you are told and respond to the Cleric's fatwa.

Why?

Why else - to free yourself from the 'Freedom' imposed by an increasingly brutal New Oppressor who you once believed had come to save your country.

****

Now, what is the evidence we offer to support our final conclusion?

Well, first and foremost, Sistani the Cleric is crushing Allawi the Puppet in the vote count. Second, in the small ring of communities where he ran, so is the militant Sewer Fixer, al Sadr.

In his closing remarks this morning Mr. Enright also said that it will likely take years or even decades before we will know how this all turns out.

We would humbly suggest that it will only take a few weeks before the outcome starts to gain clarity. And it will be signaled by the Multnationals scurrying out of Iraq like rats from a sinking ship when the Sistani-controlled Congress begins to write its own version of the Constitution.

Unless, of course, the New Oppressor tries to stop them.


___
Update: A few readers have asked, why do we care what Mr. Enright thinks or says? To which we respond....because for Canuckleheads, who have so far managed to keep out of this thing, what the big Central Canadian Media Machine says and does to shape public opinion in the next two weeks really does matter.
Double Secret Probation Update: While more cautious, the NYT comes to not dissimilar conclusions; meanwhile, Mr. Cheney has already started to push back, hard.
Triple Not-So Secret Branch Update: Linda McQuaig weighs in.



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