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Operation Founding Fathers
by James Bovard, Posted October 13, 2006

Few subjects generate more official lies than the U.S. government’s devotion to spreading democracy abroad. Iraq has been the largest most recent geyser of such deceits. In order to understand future U.S. government messianic democracy efforts, it is worthwhile to review the opportunism with respect to representative government in Iraq.

In a late February 2003 Washington speech, George W. Bush invoked democracy to sanctify his pending invasion of Iraq. He condescended,

The nation of Iraq — with its proud heritage, abundant resources and skilled and educated people — is fully capable of moving toward democracy and living in freedom.

He then showed how the coming war would be a stepping-stone to lasting peace:

But his March 18, 2003, memo to Congress, notifying them that he was invading Iraq, mentioned nothing about democracy as a casus belli.

In fact, suppressing democracy was one of the first orders of business for the U.S. occupation authorities. Three and a half months after the fall of Baghdad, U.S. military commanders “ordered a halt to local elections and self-rule in provincial cities and towns across Iraq, choosing instead to install their own handpicked mayors and administrators, many of whom are former Iraqi military leaders,” the Washington Post reported. Many Iraqis were outraged to see Saddam’s former henchmen placed back in power over them. But a sergeant with the U.S. Army Civil Affairs Battalion running the city of Samarra explained that Iraqis must be content with political “baby steps.”

U.S. viceroy Paul Bremer insisted that there was

The early suppression of popular government helped turn many Iraqis against the U.S. occupation. But as Noah Feldman, the Coalition Provisional Authority’s law advisor, explained in November 2003, “If you move too fast, the wrong people could get elected.” The repeated delays of elections were partly the result of the Bush administration’s lack of enthusiasm for Iraqi self-rule — as well as its fear that pro-Iran Shi’ites would win an honest election.

The Bush administration initially sought to install as Iraq’s ruler Washington favorite Ahmad Chalabi, an Iraqi exile whose false statements on WMDs helped sway the U.S. government to invade. University of Michigan history professor Juan Cole, one of the most respected American experts on the Middle East, observed, “If it had been up to Bush, Iraq would have been a soft dictatorship.” The Bush administration finally agreed to hold elections after Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most powerful religious leader in Iraq, sent his followers into the streets demanding an opportunity to vote.

Soviet-type democracy

The elections that were eventually held on January 30, 2005, had more in common with a Soviet-era East Bloc election than with a New England town meeting. In the weeks before the vote, the U.S. military carried out Operation Founding Fathers. In Samarra, the get-out-and-vote message was broadcast from loudspeakers at the same time American troops, leaping out of Bradley fighting vehicles, raided and searched people’s homes. The messages, taped in Arabic, were part of a selection including “Election news,” “Freedom to vote,” and “Love and family.” In Mosul, U.S. troops put up posters on destroyed buildings that declared, “The terrorists did this to the people of Mosul. They will continue to destroy unless you say, ‘Enough is enough.’” No posters were created to affix to buildings destroyed by U.S. bombs and tanks.

According to Newsday, U.S. military convoys rolled through Mosul neighborhoods shortly after sunrise on election day “with speakers blaring messages urging everyone to vote.” Soldiers also passed out thousands of sample ballots. As part of the election campaign, U.S. soldiers rounded up tens of thousands of Iraqis; the United States had more Iraqis under lock and key by election day than in the months after the invasion. The U.S. military was so desperate for control that it even dictated bedtimes for government workers. Newsday reported, “In their preparations for facilitating Iraq’s foray into democracy, Americans made sure Iraqi election workers got to bed early on the eve of the vote, demanding they be tucked in by 11 p.m.” Read the remainder of the article at
http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0607c.asp