IRAQ: "DEMOCRACY"

Guardian: Of course the White House fears free elections in Iraq by Naomi Klein

"The people of Iraq are free," declared President Bush in his state of
the union address on Tuesday. The previous day, 100,000 Iraqis begged to
differ. They took to Baghdad's streets, shouting: "Yes, yes to
elections. No, no to selection."

According to Iraq occupation chief Paul Bremer, there really is no
difference between the White House's version of freedom and the one
being demanded on the street. Asked whether his plan to form an Iraqi
government through appointed caucuses was heading towards a clash with Ayatollah
Ali al-Sistani's call for direct elections, Bremer said he had no
"fundamental disagreement with him".

It was, he said, a mere quibble over details. "I don't want to go into
the technical details of refinements. There are - if you talk to experts in
these matters - all kinds of ways to organise partial elections and
caucuses. And I'm not an election expert, so I don't want to go into
the details. But we've always said we're willing to consider refinements."

I'm not an election expert either, but I'm pretty sure there are
differences here that cannot be refined. Al-Sistani's supporters want
all Iraqis to have a vote and the people they elect to write the laws of
the country - your basic, imperfect, representative democracy.

Bremer wants his Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to appoint the
members of 18 regional organising committees. These will then choose
delegates to form 18 selection caucuses. These will then select
representatives to a transitional national assembly. The assembly will
have an internal vote to select an executive and ministers, who will form
the new government. This, Bush said in the state of the union address,
constitutes "a transition to full Iraqi sovereignty".

Got that? Iraqi sovereignty will be established by appointees
appointing appointees to select appointees to select appointees. Add the fact that
Bremer was appointed to his post by President Bush and Bush to his by
the US Supreme Court, and you have the glorious new democratic tradition of
the appointocracy: rule by an appointee's appointee's appointees'
appointees' appointees' selectees.