NEW IRAQ

Truth Out: Embracing Saddam-Lite

Poor Mr. Bush. Like bad sex, his hurried consummation of Iraq's mini-sovereignty left everything to be desired. Only a handful of people celebrated the occasion, while his Baghdad stand-in Jerry Bremer could hardly wait to jet away from the chaos he had conjured.

No wonder the ex-Viceroy ran. Over 150,000 American soldiers and mercenaries remain, with talk in Washington of many more to come. Halliburton, Bechtel, and other GOP corporate donors rapidly construct American military bases throughout Iraq, slowly rebuild the country's utilities, and effectively run both the oil fields and local media. Hand-picked Iraqis only front the show, their power tightly curbed by decrees, contracts, and secret understandings that Bremer put in place before he fled. Sovereignty is bliss, Sweetheart, but is that all there is?

How clever Washington was, the official spin-masters tell us. By holding the formal transition two days early, Team Bush wrong-footed an expected terrorist attack, Perhaps they did. But only willing fools - like ABC's Peter Jennings, who graced the event - played along with the overweening pretense. Iraqis who still oppose the suddenly "non-occupying" American troops will easily find their targets, chief among them Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and other interim leaders, who appear to many as collaborators selling out their country to the Yanks.