Asia Times: "Bush pledges on Iraq bases a ruse"

[JohnyCanuck]

Bush pledges on Iraq bases a ruse
By Gareth Porter


WASHINGTON - Two key pledges made by the George W Bush administration on military bases in its negotiations with the government of Iraq have now been revealed as carefully worded ruses aimed at concealing US negotiating aims from both US citizens and Iraqis who would object to them if they were made clear.

The talks are intended to establish the legal conditions under which US troops will remain in Iraq after their United Nations mandate expires at the end this year.

Recent statements by Iraqis familiar with US demands in negotiations on the US-Iraq "strategic framework" agreement have highlighted the fact that administration promises that it would not seek "permanent bases" or the use of bases to attack Iran or any other neighboring countries were deliberately misleading. The wording used by the Bush administration appears to have been chosen to obscure its intention to have both long-term access to Iraqi bases and complete freedom to use them to launch operations against Iran and Syria.

SNIP

Iraqi officials quickly figured out that the real significance of the draft's wording on access to military bases was that it contained neither a time limit on access to Iraqi bases nor any restrictions on the US to "conduct military operations in Iraq and to detain individuals when necessary for imperative reasons of security".

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JF14Ak01.html

[skooooo]

1. After all of this...

...I'm left to wonder what kind of life George Bush thinks he's going to have after January 2009. He'll have to practically live in a bunker to keep away from ordinary Americans.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. See what "democratically elected" governments can do?

They just shoved your dirty little trick attempt right up your asses, Mr. Fuck and Mr. Fuckwit.

[kentuck]

3. The Iraqis are scheduled to have elections in October...

and this is a red hot issue in Iraq. Should US be permitted to stay in Iraq after the UN mandate expires? This puts the Administration in a corner if they cannot get Maliki to agree to it. That means Maliki will have to go, in some manner or other. The Iraqis are ready to kick out the Americans. Now we can't have that, can we?

[DrDan]

4. they lying never stops with these felons

they just do not know how to tell the truth.

I think we will be uncovering lies for years and years.

[JohnyCanuck]

5. Building Ziggurats

The Greatest Story Never Told
Finally, the U.S. Mega-Bases in Iraq Make the News
By Tom Engelhardt


Imagine if just about no one knew that the pyramids had been built. Ditto the Great Wall of China. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The Coliseum. The Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty. Or any other architectural wonder of the world you'd care to mention.

After all, these giant bases, rising from the smashed birthplace of Western civilization, were not only built on (and sometimes out of bits of) the ancient ruins of that land, but are functionally modern ziggurats. They are the cherished monuments of the Bush administration. Even though its spokespeople have regularly refused to use the word "permanent" in relation to them -- in fact, in relation to any U.S. base on the planet -- they have been built to long outlast the Bush administration itself. They were, in fact, clearly meant to be key garrisons of a Pax Americana in the Middle East for generations to come. And, not surprisingly, they reek of permanency. They are the unavoidable essence -- unless, like most Americans, you don't know they're there -- of Bush administration planning in Iraq. Without them, no discussion of Iraq policy in this country really makes sense.

And that, of course, is what makes their missing-in-action quality on the American landscape so striking. Yes, a couple of good American reporters have written pieces about one or two of them, but most Americans, as we know, get their news from television and -- though no one can watch all the news that flows, 24/7, into American living rooms, it's a reasonable bet that a staggering percentage of Americans have never had the opportunity to see the remarkable structures their tax dollars have paid for, and continue to pay for, in occupied Iraq.

This is the sort of thing you might expect of Bush-style offshore prisons, or gulags, or concentration camps. And yet Americans have regularly and repeatedly seen what Guantanamo looks like. They have seen something of what Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq looks like. But not the bases. Perhaps one explanation lies in this: On rare occasions when Americans are asked by pollsters whether they want "permanent bases" in Iraq, significant majorities answer in the negative. You can only assume that, as on many other subjects, the Bush administration preferred to fly under the radar screen on this one -- and the media generally concurred.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174944/why_we_can_t_see_america_s_ziggurats_in_iraq