(Cross Posted from The Blog Roundup).
Hidden within the relative safety of the "Green Zone" in Baghdad, in the early hours of the morning, the U.S. administration in Iraq handed over authority to the Iraqi provisional government. The secrecy and the early handover were supposedly because of security concerns (what does that say about the popularity and sustainability of the new government?) However, the whole thing seems incredibly cloak-and- dagger to me. Democracy thrives in sunlight, and this kind of sneaking around in the shadows doesn't bode well for its health in Iraq.
This circumstances of the handover are symbolic of the ongoing and escalating violence in Iraq, and the very real prospect for a bloodbath if the U.S. withdraws its troops, or a steady stream of deaths and injuries to those troops and Iraqi civilians if they don't. Even the news today is pretty typical.
Another Bloody Day as US Prepares to Transfer Power
Two car bombs in the city of Hillah that killed at least 23 civilians and a rocket attack that left dead two children who were playing on the bank of the Tigris River in Baghdad have raised the political temperature before Wednesday's transfer of sovereignty.
A further 58 people were injured in the blasts in Hillah, south of Baghdad, including Noor Ahmed, a two-year-old whose right arm had to be amputated.
Yesterday's rocket attack in Baghdad, which came as President George Bush posed for a photograph with other Nato leaders in an Ottoman palace in Istanbul, was followed by the seizure of a US Marine. The hostage, like three Turks whose capture was announced on Saturday, has been threatened with beheading.
Just another day in a free and democratic country...
Also I highly recommend this fascinating online diary on the handover by Omar Razek, an Arabic speaking correspondent for BBCArabic.com:
Iraqis are, as usual, preoccupied with thoughts of earning their daily living and dreams about security and peace on the day the handover of power was officially announced, two days ahead of the schedule.
There are no celebrations in the streets of Baghdad, no demonstrations and no banners or flags marking the occasion.
A few flags can be seen on the rooftops of some government buildings in the Green Zone.
Power was handed over in secret, before Baghdad residents woke up. It was a surprise for everyone here.
There's also a series of viewpoints from average Iraqis, of the sort which are rarely (if ever) reported in the U.S. media (and which might also be harder to obtain by a non arabic-speaking reporter). If you've seen Fahrenheit 9/11 you'll have some idea of what I mean:
The Iraqis I met had simple dreams.
An elderly woman was fighting off tears as she said: "I pray that some good comes out of this. We want our youth with us. We don't want them to start dying again."
A middle-aged man thought the handover was nothing more than a show and asked: "How can the prime minister make sovereign decisions while under American protection?"
This diary will be continuing for a while, so to get the inside story on Iraq I suggest you bookmark it and visit often.
- Trendar