I can’t wait to see the day when OTHERS tell the US “stuff happens” while the suffer a big blow!
Rumsfeld cracks jokes, but Iraqis aren’t laughing
Lawrence Smallman
At a Pentagon briefing, the US defence secretary faced questions about the rapidly deteriorating security situation, amid calls by aid agencies to allow them to do their job.
“Stuff happens,” came the Rumsfeld reply.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld jokes while Baghdad suffers
“It’s untidy. And freedom’s untidy. And free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things,” his adroit fingers this time pointing at no particular member of the press. Lawlessness, closed hospitals and fires burning in Baghdad and other cities are a freed people venting their frustrations, apparently.
If ever an Oscar was deserved for minimizing catastrophic reports coming out of Iraq with jocular “henny penny” disbelief, then Rumsfeld has a date with Hollywood.
“Television is merely running the same footage of the same man stealing a vase over and over,” he joked, adding he didn’t think there were that many vases in Iraq. The US may be the strongest nation in the world, but their history is incomparable to that of Iraq – a region that has been described as the cradle of civilization.
Flippant remarks cannot replace priceless artefacts that have disappeared from the National Museum in Baghdad, or the books of the University of Mosul – one of the oldest and best universities in the whole of the Middle East.
But Secretary Rumsfeld has “a lot of confidence in the American people” not to believe TV footage from Iraq. Widespread theft across Iraq, reported in every language on screens worldwide, is an acceptable expression of freedom and really just the same picture shown again and again, he claimed. Meanwhile, Al Jazeera correspondents in Tikrit, Mosul, Basra and Baghdad confirm that US troops are still just watching looters steal private property and destroy any feelings of public safety.
The International Committee of the Red Cross and World Health Organizations issued appeals today to the US and British military to restore order, as the Geneva Convention requires.
US and British commanders say they don’t have the troops to do this, or play a policing role. President Bush reinforced Rumsfeld’s view on Friday, saying that “out of chaos that takes place there now … the Iraqi people will run their own country.”
“I reminded them that war in Iraq is really about peace,” said Bush. “This victory in Iraq, when it happens, will make the world more peaceful.” Iraqis who have been starved by sanctions for 12 years, bombed for three weeks and now robbed for three days must be beginning to wonder when this peace will begin.
“Tommy tells us what is necessary to achieve the objective. We gave Tommy the tools necessary to win,” said Bush. "And when Tommy says we’ve achieved our objectives, that’s when we’ve achieved our objectives. The war will end when Tommy says we’ve achieved our objectives.‘’ Let’s hope Tommy decides to impose some law and order soon.
“Freedom is a gift from the Almighty God,” President Bush added, failing to define what General Frank’s objectives were, when asked.
At the Pentagon, Secretary Rumsfeld said the US does feel an obligation to assist in providing security: “We’re looking for the police” in Iraqi towns and villages, he added. Concerns expressed before the war look likely to be fulfilled, those best able to police Iraq now might be those who have had the most experience – namely Ba’athists and supporters of the old regime. Calling into question, the logic of much of the war.
Appeals for quick solutions may exacerbate a terrible problem. US troops “should be doing something because (the chaos) destroys our image as the liberators and the people who are going to bring a new order to Iraq,” foreign affairs analyst Ivo Daalder of the Brookings Institution in Washington. It’s not nice for Iraqi civilians either.
There has been some crucial action to bring peace. Central Command in Qatar said it was issuing decks of `Saddam regime’ cards to troops to help them spot Saddam and his supporters – showing a US-blacklisted 55 personalities. The American military has also rushed to dispatch 2,000 troops to secure northern Iraq’s oilfields, which will alleviate Turkish political concerns – though probably not aid Kurdish interests.
The Pentagon has also been busy, admitting yesterday that it had awarded - without competition - a contract worth up to $7 billion, to the subsidiary of a company run until three years ago by Vice-President Dick Cheney.
Democrat Representative Henry Waxman of California, from the government reform committee, called for an investigation into the deal with oil services giant Halliburton, saying he could understand the contract if it had been issued in an emergency.
“But it’s harder to understand what the rationale would be for a sole-source contract that has a multi-year duration and multi-billion-dollar price tag,” he said. --Al Jazeera