Baghdad Blast. posted by Richard Seymour

The daily postcard pictures of progress and reconstruction in Iraq that the Coalition Provisional Authority sees fit to produce for the world are belied constantly by reports from the reality on the ground. Thus it is that a Bishop visiting Iraq describes the CPA headquarters as the "Dream Zone".

"Inside the Dream Zone, they don't know what is going on in the city... They don't know the deprivations the people are putting up with. They don't have jobs. Right now, people are getting the same amount of basic food as they have been getting through the oil-for-food program, but there is the fear that could be running out. The city is just very depressing."
(‘Iraqis still suffering, says Bishop Gumbleton after visiting Iraq’, Robert Delaney, Catholic News Service, January 29, 2004)

While the UN reports on the increase in encephalitis as a result of malnutrition in Iraq, citing the despairing views of one doctor, Rada, at the Children's Teaching Hospital:

"You can see the children here. There is much suffering among them. No one seems to be helping them. We have been to the ministry of heath for assistance and to the Americans. We have received nothing so far."
(‘IRAQ: Encephalitis affecting children’, IRIN, January 26, 2004, www.reliefweb.int)

Beneath the skein of constant misdirection and sleight of hand coming from the CPA are cries of despair which it would not take long to discover if one was, say, a journalist. As it happens, the task falls to a couple of Chomskyan critics at Medialens . The only time at which this virtual reality is ruptured is when some horrendously violent spectacle literally explodes onto Iraqi streets. Today, it looks like a car bomb blast has ripped into a Baghdad police station and claimed fifty lives. I'm not going to bore you with condemnations of the means of the Iraqi Resistance. It would be pointless hypocrisy since I support the ends of the Resistance 100%. Within those bounds, I accept the right and responsibility to be critical, but not to moralise. At any rate, those most likely to sanctimoniously decry the loss of innocent life are those most responsible for encouraging it and participating in it - the US government and its media cheer-leaders. Christopher Hitchens decries the Resistance for having "murdered female members of the provisional democratic government" , but was presumably not so outraged at the murder of females taking place every day while the US waged its bitter assault on Iraq. So, you will understand if I withdraw myself from such disgusting platitudinising.

Not more than a few months ago, the US army was claiming that the capture of Saddam Hussein had resulted in a dramatic decline in the incidences of attacks on coalition troops. As I noted at the time, this was horseshit. The thought, however, was that it would be nice if people would only believe that all the trouble was being caused by "Saddam loyalists". The story has changed. The Guardian, in it's report of the incident , subliminally introduced the theme:

"The bombing came after US officials said an Islamic militant with links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network was plotting to ignite a civil war in Iraq to undermine efforts to hand over power to Iraqis."

The BBC followed suit in an almost identical quote:

"It comes a day after US officials warned against what they described as an al-Qaeda plot to ignite violence between the majority Shia Muslims and the Sunni Muslims who held power under the former Iraqi regime."

Well, there you are. If it isn't Saddam Hussein, it must be Abu Musab Zarqawi, an Islamist terrorist whom Washington claims has links with Ansar al-Islam, the Kurdish group. Ridiculously enough, Washington once tried to pin an Al Qaeda connection on Saddam Hussein because Zarqawi had been seen in Iraq - despite the fact that they were actually linking him with an anti-Saddam Kurdish army. Now, they hold him responsible for planning to destabilise the country. Somehow, I am not bowled over by their evidence, Exhibit A of which is a computer disc with a letter on it allegedly written by Zarqawi outlining his plans to destabilise Iraq. Because, if you're terrorist, you do that sort of thing don't you? You explain your plans in detailed letters and leave them lying around for coalition troops to find. Makes perfect sense to me.

Anyway, the American forces have once more demonstrated their rather loose grasp of irony, or indeed reality:

"There is clearly a plan on the part of outsiders to come into this country and spark civil war, breed sectarian violence and try to expose fissures in the society," said Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the top US military spokesman in Iraq.

Yeah, that'll be the US government, you prat! CNN quotes CPA spokesman Dan Senor:

"We have a lot of good days; unfortunately we also have a lot of bad days like today," Senor said. "The good news is that we have more good days than bad days."

Senor seems to think he's talking to his marriage counsellor. At any rate, CNN are careful to drop the same hints as The Guardian:

"Coalition and Iraqi forces are bracing for more violence from anti-U.S. guerrillas as the country heads toward independence July 1."

Naturally, the claim that Iraq is heading toward independence come July 1st is absolutely bogus, and the corrolary implication that the violence is being wrought to destroy a nice, peaceful handover of power by a benevolent and blushing US government is absurd. Still, a bank of available lies and cover-ups is carefully preserved in Downing Street and the Whitehouse, and it churns out faxes and press packs each day to keep those inquiring bods in the media occupied. I understand the Sun's press packs now come with crayons. I would therefore expect a sustained, and partially successful, campaign over the next few months to locate an Al Qaeda conspiracy, possibly buttressed by some new 'finds'. Every limb is worth lying for.


ps: And what's this? Howard Dean posing as a Ralph Nader, on the "democratic wing of the Democrat party"? Surely not!