On the Ground In Iraq

Patrick Cockburn is one of the few western reporters who is determined to travel around Iraq to get the real story out, despite the security concerns. In his latest article for The Independent, 'It is strange how in Iraq slaughter soon seems to be part of normal life', he takes his readers to Mosul, Tal Afar and other areas of the country and provides a broader picture of the realities on the ground than most North American reporters are capable of compiling. He describes how sectarian divisions have become so personal that Shias married to Sunnis are now encouraged to seek divorces rather than cavorting with 'the enemy'.

He also describes the relationship between the Bush administration and the grip it has on the Iraqi government while it publicly claims to be applying more pressure om al-Maliki to take over control:

Of course Messrs Bush and Blair argue there is no occupation. In June 2004, sovereignty was supposedly handed back to Iraq. "Let Freedom Reign," wrote Mr Bush. But the reality of power remained firmly with the US and Britain. The Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki said this month that he could not move a company of soldiers without seeking permission of the Coalition (the US and Britain). Officials in Mosul confirmed to me that they could not carry out a military operation without the agreement of US forces.

So, how can the Iraqis control what's going on if the US government won't let them? This flies in the face of previous proclamations that Iraq's democratically-elected government is anywhere near being independent and the fact that Buscho is building its largest embassy in the world in Iraq along with permanent US military bases shows they are far from willing to let any Iraq government actually run the country. If that isn't the definition of an occupation, I don't know what is.

Getting Bush and his neocons out of Iraq will be a monumental task, obviously.