------
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/11/con03339.html
Bush's Global Democratic Revolution, One Bomb at a Time
A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY by Mike Whitney
If the Bush presentation on democratizing the Middle East was not the most shamelessly hypocritical speech ever delivered, then it certainly must have been the runner-up. Consider, for a minute, the audacity of an American President giving advice the people of a region who have suffered under tyrannies that have been kept in place, for the most part, to accommodate the glutinous energy consumption of the American people. Then, consider the fact the CIA and US corporations have played an aggressive role in deposing leaders who they didn't care for, or training the repressive security apparatus of the various client states.
It would have been more apropos if a "stand-up" comic had delivered the speech rather than the President of the United States.
Do the people of the region really forget the CIA coup that removed the democratically elected Iranian leader Mossedegh. Kermit Roosevelt, the main CIA operative, actually boasted to President Eisenhauer that the mission was accomplished for less than $1,000,000. A bargain for the US, who wanted Iranian oil in the control of US industry, not such a good deal for Iranians who had to endure 25 years of the Shah's brutal rule.
And wasn't it the US who assisted Saddam in his rise to power by providing thousands of names of communists and leftists who may have entertained the heretical notion that Iraq's wealth should be divided among its people? They were all murdered, as the powerbrokers in the US certainly knew they would be.
And hasn't the US effectively tried to undermine any popular movement in the region that might inspire Arab nationalism, preferring to prop up the corrupt regimes and fiefdoms rather than allow governments with greater widespread legitimacy to emerge?
And, now that the current Administration can't be bothered any longer with the formalities of covert operations and secretive coups, but prefers the more straightforward methodology of naked aggression, they assume that they can offer a few sanctimonious bromides on the "global democratic revolution" and Arabs will start rushing off to the polling booths. Not so fast, Mr. President.
The American people may be hoodwinked by the WMD fiasco, but I doubt that the people of the region, who have suffered for 50 years from Washington's self serving policies, are gullible enough to believe your sad sack vision of a democratized Middle East.
A quick look at Iraq or Afghanistan will convey everything they could possibly want to know about that flawed Bush vision. In Afghanistan not one major construction project has been initiated, security is nonexistent, and the entire countryside is under the brutal rule of the regional warlords. Quite a success story, eh? (A story of unparalleled failure that will never appear in the pages of America's "free press")
As for Iraq, while the security situation deteriorates by the day, and casualties among Iraqis mount to nearly 10,000 civilians, the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) has been busying itself with the critical task of "privatizing" Iraq's 200 public sector businesses. Privatization is the operative buzzword for safely delivering those same businesses to the control and ownership of American corporations. This process of robbing Iraq of its vital assets seems to be making great headway despite Iraq's soaring 70% unemployment.
At least, the Bush-Bremer combo seem to have figured out how to resolve the security crisis in Iraq. By establishing a freewheeling paramilitary force and by re-enlisting many of the former members of Saddam's Gestapo (the Mukhabarat), the CPA should be able to create the same atmosphere of fear and intimidation that existed prior to the occupation.
It's all part of Mr. Bush's Global democratic revolution.
Ironically, just a few hours after President Bush's speech, Abrams tanks and F-16's were delivering a fresh dose of democracy to the stubborn people of Tikrit. Their exposure to the blessings of Bush's Freedom came in the customary form of 500 lb. bombs and tank shells. The fact that these attacks were directed at no one in particular, didn't obscure the poignant message, the principles governing "collective punishment" are widely understood throughout the region, and require no explanation. This is just the most recent case of duplicity, but certainly not the last.
Mike Whitney
----
The Times
OBITUARIES - KERMIT ROOSEVELT June 16 2000
Kermit Roosevelt, former CIA agent, was born in 1916. He died on June 8 aged 84
Mastermind of the CIA coup that put the Shah of Iran back on his Peacock Throne in 1953 Kermit Roosevelt Roosevelt: urbane and courteous, but nevertheless "up to his neck in dirty tricks"
"I OWE my throne to God, my people, my army - and to you," sobbed a grateful Shah of Iran to Kermit Roosevelt in August 1953, after the CIA-backed coup which overthrew the country's independently-minded Prime Minister, Muhammad Mossadeq, and restored the Shah to the Peacock Throne.
The background to the crisis was Iran's substantial oil reserves, which in the early 1950s - like the Suez Canal in Egypt not so long afterwards - were becoming a focus for nationalist sentiment. As soon as Mossadeq became Prime Minister of Iran in 1951, with the support of the Tudeh (Communist) Party, the debate over them moved from aspiration to direct action.
In 1952 Mossadeq nationalised Iran's (mainly British-owned) oil resources, an action which put him beyond the pale with the Americans, who swiftly came to regard him as being the thin end of one of the Cold War's many wedges. From that moment they saw him as opening the door to the Soviet domination of Iran - although in fact he had been as much opposed to giving the Soviet Union an oil concession in the north of the country as he was to the dominance in the south of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (the forerunner of BP).
Full at
http://www.flyingfish.org.uk/articles/rushdie/00-06-16tim.htm