Cole interviews Allawi: good

[rodeodance]

>
> From the issue dated May 25, 2007
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> We asked Juan Cole, a professor of modern Middle East and South Asian
> history at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and the
> influential blogger at Informed Comment (http://juancole.com), to
> interview Allawi, by e-mail, about the situation in Iraq. They talked
> about the occupation; the current Iraqi government and sectarian
> violence; and the military and political prospects for Iraq,
> occupation forces stationed there, and the country's Arab neighbors.
>
> Cole: Your book is titled The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War,
> Losing the Peace. Many Iraqi government figures have argued against
> referring to the U.S. presence as an occupation, but you accept this
> term. In your view, can the U.S. military still accomplish anything
> positive in Iraq, or is it time for the troops to leave the country?
> Will the addition of a division or so (25,000 soldiers) for six to
> nine months really change anything on the ground? What do you think is
> the attitude by now of Iraqis toward the U.S. troops on the ground?
>
> Allawi: The coalition presence in Iraq is an occupation, even though
> the fiction is assiduously maintained that the Multi-National Force is
> there at the specific request of the Iraqi authorities and authorized
> by an enabling U.N. resolution. All elements of an occupation are
> there. They include the absence of a governing agreement between the
> MNF and Iraq, a so-called status of forces agreement; the absolute
> immunity and extraterritoriality enjoyed by the MNF from any Iraqi
> laws and directives; the subservience of the Iraqi military command to
> the MNF in matters of substance; and the existence of Iraqi security
> institutions, such as the intelligence services and a number of elite
> military formations, that report to the MNF only.
>
> In addition, the Iraqi government, which is a dysfunctional organism,
> is dependent on policy initiatives and prescriptions that are
> generated by foreign advisers and consultants attached to the U.S.
> Embassy. The U.S. and U.K. ambassadors openly take part in domestic
> Iraqi politics and have overturned the selection of a democratically
> nominated prime-ministerial candidate, him] Jaafari, when
> it did not suit their interests. The relationship between the Iraqi
> government and the U.S. is not between equals. The evidence of a
> dependency culture is embarrassingly evident. It is an unusual form of
> an occupation that masquerades as something else.
>
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