"Why We Did It" in Iraq and what Rachel Maddow missed

Horhey · Mar 12, 2014

[video=youtube_share;Sbey4hPlrX0]http://youtu.be/Sbey4hPlrX0[/video]

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow claimed she was the first to finnally reveal the underlying reasons for the U.S. invasion of Iraq but it had already been exposed in early 2008 by the Boston Globe and the New York Times, as I have shown here many times since then:

Boston Globe: Bush asserts authority to bypass defense act

In the signing statement, Bush asserted that four sections of the bill unconstitutionally infringe on his powers, and so the executive branch is not bound to obey them.

One section Bush targeted created a statute that forbids spending taxpayer money "to establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq" or "to exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq."
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New York Times: Bush Declares Exceptions to Sections of Two Bills He Signed Into Law

President Bush asserted on Tuesday that he had the executive power to bypass several parts of two bills: In the authorization bill, Mr. Bush challenged four sections. One forbid the money from being used “to exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq.”
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Moreover, Rachel Maddow missed a critical piece of the puzzle which was the fact the US occupation authority lead by L. Paul Bremer tried to block free and fair elections until they were forced to back down from a fatwa issued by the most prominent shi'ite religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani:

Financial Times: Winds of Change in the Middle East

the reason [the elections] took place was the insistence of the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who vetoed three schemes by the US-led occupation authorities to shelve or dilute them.
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Specifically:

Washington Post - How Cleric Trumped U.S. Plan for Iraq

Ayatollah's Call for Vote Forced Occupation Leader to Rewrite Transition Strategy

The unraveling of the Bush administration's script for political transition in Iraq began with a fatwa. The religious edict, handed down in June by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shiite Muslim cleric, called for general elections to select the drafters of a new constitution. He dismissed U.S. plans to appoint the authors as "fundamentally unacceptable."

Bremer refused to give up. "Is the political structure of Iraq going to be in the hands of one man?" Bremer said to a group of visitors in October.

He urged the council's five traditionalist Shiites to try to persuade Sistani to support partial elections, said Rubaie, one of the five. Rubaie said he met with Sistani in October and explained the problems with general elections and the benefits of partial elections. Sistani was unmoved, Rubaie said. "He would not have it."

Shortly thereafter, Sistani delivered his first public pronouncements on partial elections. In written comments provided to The Washington Post, he said there could be "no substitute" for a general election.

But as U.S. military casualties escalated, Bremer and other Bush administration officials realized their plan would have to be rewritten. "Once it became clear we couldn't get around the election, we knew we had to do something else," one American involved in the process said.
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Noah Feldman, Bremer’s advisor on constitutional issues candidly explained why they were resisting direct elections in Iraq:

New York Times: A REGION INFLAMED: NEWS ANALYSIS; Iraq Exit Plan: New Obstacles

Mr. Feldman added. "Simply put, if you move too fast, the wrong people could get elected."
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This concept is consistent with Carnegie Endowment's Thomas Carothers' analysis of U.S. democracy promotion abroad:

Critical mission: essays on democracy promotion

By Thomas Carothers, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2004

Where democracy appears to fit in well with U.S. security and economic interests, the United States promotes democracy. Where democracy clashes with other significant interests, it is downplayed or even ignored.
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Which is an understatement.

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"Why We Did It" in Iraq and what Rachel Maddow missed

Horhey Well-Known Member

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"Why We Did It" in Iraq and what Rachel Maddow missed

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