If the Iraqis are going to be ‘allowed’ to apply Islamic law to their country - which, seeing as it’s their country seems entirely reasonable - one has to wonder if one of the major benefits of the war is being lost.
The country’s draft constitution - already delayed once - is due by the end of today and there is some anxiety to see that it’s produced on time.
American diplomats backed religious conservatives who threatened to torpedo talks over the shape of the new Iraq unless Islam was a primary source of law. Secular and liberal groups were dismayed at the move, branding it a betrayal of Washington’s promise to advocate equal rights in a free and tolerant society.
According to Kurdish and Sunni negotiators, the US ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, proposed that Islam be named “a primary source” and supported a wording which would give clerics authority in civil matters such as divorce, marriage and inheritance.
Women have begun to protest against the constitution and their perception that they would become second-class citizens. That the US might be instrumental in the creation of an Islamic state would be ironic indeed:
If approved, critics say that the proposals would erode women’s rights and other freedoms enshrined under existing laws. “We understand the Americans have sided with the Shias. It’s shocking. It doesn’t fit with American values,” an unnamed Kurdish negotiator told Reuters. “They have spent so much blood and money here, only to back the creation of an Islamist state.”
From a UK perspective this war was fought to protect us from Weapons of Mass Destruction, evidence for which had to be fabricated in order to sell the idea to Parliament and the world in general. To date, none have been found.
For those few of us who are uneasy with the war altogether but also do not want to join in the unthinking anti-Americanism of many who also oppose, the imposition of democracy was a kind of compensatory argument, a ‘well, it should not have happened but at least the Iraqis get something out of it’ type of silver-lining.
That argument slinks quietly out of the room as Islamic law marches boldly in.
But Gary, the “extreme” Islamist society is the mirror of the “select” ruling the ignorent masses.
It facilitates the believability and sustains the essential “reality” of the “manufactured” nightmares.
This is not an unrehearsed or undesired development. On the contrary this is precisly the design ripe for control and exploitation.
For Muslims and the West alike.
It was the secularised and progressive Iraq under Saddam that was dangerous to the policy of Monopoly. Of course the rapid progress towards an independent and educated nation claiming just dividends from it`s oil had to be halted.
The “radicalised” Muslim society is the perfect instrument of Corporate Power. Mostly the Muslims are betrayed and lied to by opportunistic power loving traitors who trample upon the just common interest, not unlike Britian, Australia and the US.
All the rest is propaganda and managed theatre to assist the script as we are all ushered towards a future we would not choose if we saw it coming.
Comment by Christopher Brooks — August 22, 2005 @ 1:44 pm
Mr B,
I don’t necessarily think of an Islamic state as ‘extremist’. If it’s the country the people want then so be it. They regard a country where women walk around with skirts barely covering their arses as pretty extreme…
You make the claim that only the few would like to be governed by Islamic law but I’m not so sure about that. If you’re correct then the ‘ignorant masses’ as you call them who don’t want Islamic law must be most unimpressed by the legal system offered to them by their god.
In what way was Iraq ‘progressive’? I realise it wasn’t backward and that, being secular, it may have shared some of the positive aspects of the secular west. But progressive I’m having trouble with.
And how does radical Islam help corporate power? What does a religious Iraq buy more of that a secular Iraq doesn’t?
You hint at an ultimate gameplan. Where one of the biggest criticisms of the US-led operation in Iraq is that there was no planning at all - and no so-called exit strategy - you imply the complete opposite.
Who is planning and what are they planning?
GM
Comment by Gary Monro — August 22, 2005 @ 2:03 pm
I conceed “extremist” is a subjective term.
You demonstrate an uncommon zest for precision in your expression that I enjoy and also value.
The current atmosphere in Iraq and the “political” process that is delivering the new “constitution” is a tragic farce.
Regular assassinations have been “voting” out potential political opponents.
Many journalists have also been on the “deadly” end of censorship.
A political “result” in Iraq at this time could well be compared with testimony made under torture. It is not admissable to a rational debate.
What is evolving in Iraq has nothing to do with the genuine will of the people.
My description of the “ignorent masses” would equaly be directed toward the Brits or Australians who keep voting for political power movements that deliver a steady erosion of individual freeedom and prosperity relative to the expanding potential released by the expansion of knowledge and technology.
As in Iraq, also in the west, the dividends of the total social effort become increasingly concentrated in the hands of a select minority.
Yes, if you keep people uneducated and ignorent they will enthusiasticaly support a regime bent on a destructive path.
It is a psycological reality that under the right conditions a prisoner comes to love his jailer.
The propaganda controlled populous choose a path under threat and stress, believing it is the only choice in a difficult situation. The difficult situation, the crisis, is often manufactured or complete fabrication.
Most people are manipulated like a small child kept safe from a dangerous dam believing it is the home of a hungry monster.
There are principles of association, learned over thousands of years of human experience, that go far to release the generous abundance of creation and nurture the growth of individual human personality.
Our history books are filled with the success and failures of the social dynamic.
Though I defend the rule of law for Muslims along with all others, I agree with sentiments exppressed by yourself on previous blogs questioning the multi-cultural policy.
I suggest you may have been voting for political reps who advance this policy in the past and will continue to do so in the future. You will no doubt have your apologetic themes but they will not convince me of the contradictions in your behaviour. I accept you hold your views with reason. I view your behaviour as the consequence of propaganda. Voting for what you do not want is incarnating the Orwellian doublespeak. Truth equals lies, war is peace and freedom equals surrendering freedom. The Conservative agenda is identical to the Labour agenda but by manipulating human nature most of the community can be captured in the service of destroying the culture they love by convincing them the “other” is responsible for the failures while the allusion is conducted right before your eyes.
The “failures” of best efforts are in fact the designed outcome.
The radical Muslim “threat” is the distraction of the magician as the masterful theft of our heritage goes on in full view.
My progressive description of Iraq is of course a relative statement.
Previous to Gulf War 1 , the manufacturing, agriculture, education, health care, etc, etc, whee all improving rapidly compared to any other country in that part of the world.
The atrocity themes regarding the Iraq history would all need to be examined with a political memory of the WMD lies and a careful consideration of the complex agendas of agencies that make allegations. Atrocity propaganda is a study that will develop the mind to think it`s way to a better future.
Saddam Hussein`s secular government was increasingly being viewed by neighbours as attractive.
Iraq had restricted the corporate exploitation by nationalising their oil. Iraq was beginning to enjoy the abundance of it`s physical assets.
I conceed there are many complexities involved in the diverse political atmosphere of Iraq and this new found wealth was not being enjoyed equally.
Iraq was a danger to the primitive and exploited policy succesfully achieved in that part of the world by the corporate sharks.
The “radical” Sheiks assisted in closing their peoples to a knowledge that might interfere with the profit margins. The oil is obtained at little cost while the countries are left underdeveloped and ignorent. Only a tiny percentage of the people have to be lavished with wealth and a suitable ideology preached that sustains conflict within, and contempt from the western public denying the people their due justice against such brutal and mischevious exploitation.
The “Muslim conspiracy theory”, now part of the “belief” system of the western world has become the backdrop to our whole lives.
The “fear” button can be pushed as needed to assist the policy of Monopoly on it`s merry way to the destruction of this civilisation.
The stated US military strategy is irrelavant.
What is really happening is the key to understanding.
I believe the plan was always to create chaos and destruction so the progressive capacity of Iraq was destroyed. In time the truth will more clearly reveal that the academic, judicial and rational heart of Iraq has been destroyed.
The country has been handed back to the tyranny of primitive ideologies restoring the control over the precious oil. There is no exit plan, because there will be no real exit.
No doubt there will be a TV exit if essential
to manipulate the public.
You continue to confuse propaganda with real information.
In this quagmire there are many thousands of genuine participants full of apologetics and confusion attempting to explain what appears to be an idiotic policy.
The “big lie” always gets under the guard of the mesmerised masses who fail to concentrate long enough on any deep political issue to work it out. Political memory is almost non existent.
Gary, are you going to confront the unanswered questions hanging loose from the London Bombing episodes. What a contrast in the unfolding Menenez incident when the evidence is examined.
This demand should be instinctive reflex for those serious about preserving our freedom and security. To trust when it is not justified is a childish and primitive attitude.
It is the individual inquisitive character and thinking that lies at the foundation of civilised society.
Gary, “Who is planning and what are they planning?”, is a big question.
A wise man once cautioned me with the advice that it is a waste of time to become the most educated inmate in the chains of your enemies, the priority is to plan a method of escape.
I may not know who plans to break into my home and steal my goods, I do take appropriate precaution to defend against the threat.
I do so because I understand the community I live in and the nature of humanity.
The threat to us all is the “Will to Power”.
The planner is all of us when we replace conscious moral behaviour and thinking with self serving greed and apathetic lazy ignorence.
The power over us magnifies when we refuse to take responsibility for the things of this world when they intersect with our minds and actions.
The “planners” are criminals who employ the things of this world to enrich themselves at the expense of others. Power is corrupting of all human nature. That is why the constituted process is so critical to provide protection against our own discovered nature.
Of course Power takes the form of organistation
to achieve it`s growth and it rewards those who assist it and punish those who confront it.
The systemic apex of organised monopoly is the control over our means of exchange - “money”.
The high priests, we are told, forced all trade to be conducted in the “temple” currency.
Jesus, we are told, entered the market with a whip to confront their crime.
Money is an abstract that allows whomever has a monopoly over it`s creation to dictate the affairs of humanity.
The monopoly of money is the policy of tyranny and power.
Money is the oxygen of human economic life and none survive against it`s directive.
The US Federal Reserve, a private company owned by the major banking cartels, is the instrument that currently controls our global money supply.
“Money creation” and “credit creation” are understood by only a tiny number of the public yet the facts are freely found by any who seek them.
If the general public ever learnt the money trick
the global power game would be over.
It would be recognised that the world is generous in it`s created design providing for all our needs beyond our desires.
Money should be moral not monopolised
A LITTLE PHILOSOPHY
It is the “social dynamic” or the “moral order” that releases the abundance in proportion to our obedience to the discipline weaved into nature.
My belief as a “Christian”, a subjective term if ever there was one, motivates me to seek the mind of creation and it`s purpose so “reality” can be released for all.
Comment by Christopher Brooks — August 23, 2005 @ 2:36 am