Iraq: Repackaging the occupation

The chasm separating the Bush administration's version of events in Iraq and the actual reality of the occupation has, it appears, become so absurdly wide that even Republican supporters of the illegal war and occupation have begun to question the Bush administration's inability to publicly face the disastrous truth. Conservative Republican Senator Chuck Hagel recently commented about the war, "It's like they're just making it up as they go along," adding that the White House is "completely disconnected from reality".

Such bold statements by Republicans, criticising a fellow Republican administration, have forced the Bush administration to wage a propaganda offensive aimed at convincing an increasingly sceptical American population that the situation in Iraq is under control. A recent meeting between President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari was followed by a prime time speech by Bush a week later in which he repeatedly sought to justify the occupation with references to 9/11, as if still unaware that the two are not related.

The spectacle of Bush and Al-Jaafari together, speaking glowingly about the progress being made in Iraq will surely be digested by the majority of Iraqis as the deceitful propaganda that it is. While Iraqis swelter in this, their third summer under occupation, with power cuts, a lack of clean water, and no improvement in the security situation, they must also bare the sight of their prime minister effusively thanking George Bush and the American people for their "sacrifices" in Iraq, but Al-Jaafari was doing nothing more than paying the necessary homage to the man responsible for the existence of his government.

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http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/751/re4.htm