Bollettino

Smilin' Jay

Smilin' Jay made his debut as the embodiment of the Iraqi Geist at a meeting of all allowable Iraqi political groups today. At this meeting he spoke for all of when he pledged, as head of the US led Iraqi government, never to install a US led government in Iraq. Lately, the Bush administration has been lessening the gap between the claim and its contradiction. It took three weeks between the time they pledged to use Iraqi oil revenues to pay for the invasion and the moment in which they disclaimed ever intending to use Iraqi oil revenues to pay for the invasion. Since the Bush administration is run by business types, they know that in today's competitive marketplace, it's an "I want it yesterday" kind of atmosphere. They are simply transferring those principles of free enterprise to their own dealing in mendacity. A credibility gap is only as big as the time it takes to contradict one falsehood with another.

As for the meeting, like unto the sacred Philadelphia convention that whelped our own republic -- if, that is, that convention had been led by a French marquis, and backed up with two hundred thousand french troops -- the NYT has the grafs:


"Many of those who did not attend said they opposed United States plans to install the retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner to run an interim administration in Iraq.

General Garner, wearing an Iraqi flag pin on his blue shirt, opened the conference by saying, ``A free and democratic Iraq will begin today.''

He added, ``What better place than the birthplace of civilization could you have for the beginning of a free Iraq?''

This is particularly rich considering the US decision to stand by while the Baghdad museum was looted. This Chicago Sun-Times article details the damage. The last three grafs are a fair indication of the Bush-ite attitude towards the birthplace of civilization:

"U.S. forces are making a belated attempt to protect the National Museum, calling on Iraqi policemen to turn up for duty. There is no pay, but 80 have volunteered.

"The Americans were supposed to protect the museum," Amin said. "If they had just one tank and two soldiers, nothing like this would have happened. I hold the American troops responsible.

"The Americans knew that the museum was at risk and could have protected it, said Patty Gerstenblith, a professor at DePaul School of Law in Chicago who helped circulate a petition before the war, urging that care be taken to protect Iraqi antiquities. ''It was completely inexcusable and avoidable,'' she said."

Well, you just can't pay police to hang around a palace of dusty junk. You get Dyncorps to do it! and pay them out of future oil revenues. An especially brilliant plan, this one, of guarding a looted museum. Those future retarded looters are gonna get it.