It may have been an unexpected Christmas bonus for Blair and Bush, but
leven the capture and ritual public humiliation of Saddam Hussein in mid December has not been enough to resolve the problems faced by the occupying US and "coalition" forces in Iraq.
The televising of demeaning pictures of the former dictator undergoing medical examination was a reminder of the extent to which today's American Empire has modelled itself on the savage oppression of the Romans.
It is worth noting that while Bush has openly expressed his eagerness to see the death penalty imposed, the dangers that any fair and public trial of Saddam would expose the sheer scale and duration of US support for his ruthless regime are likely to postpone such an event until comfortably after Bush's bid for reelection is complete in November.
But even before the opinion polls had registered the boost in George Bush's flagging public credibility the battles on the ground had again begun to take their toll of US troops, US-appointed Iraqi "police" and of course dozens of innocent Iraqi civilians caught up in a continuing conflict.
The resistance to the occupation is in part
driven by the methods of the US occupiers themselves. The last month has included repeated brutal raids by US troops on the offices of Iraqi trade unionists, and on mosques and activists of the Sunni Muslim community, coupled heavy damage property, arrests, and the confiscation of equipment, money and documents.
"This is not the behaviour of liberators, but occupiers," one Sunni leader told the Guardian. "Americans may have the latest technology but they make little effort to understand people's souls".
The repression, and resistance to it, continues throughout Iraq. In the Kurdish areas of the north increasingly militant demands for independence have triggered a backlash in which thousands of Arabs and Turkmen protestors marched through Kirkuk, to be met by gunfire from Kurdish fighters, leaving five dead. In the South Iraqi police opened fire on a demonstration by more than a thousand people in Samawah demanding jobs.
Meanwhile armed fighters continue to target US and "coalition" troops and transport.
The conflicts give an indication of the bitter divisions within post-Saddam Iraq, none of which can be resolved through the undemocratic lash-up proposed by the US as a means to establishing a new government by the summer.
To complex is the situation on the Serban that a the independent
Robert Fisk reports, one prominent neo-conservative has suggested carving rag into three miniand lines - one for the Kurds, one for the Shias and one for the Sunnis: the "general idea is to strengthen with Kurds
Shias weaken the Sunnis".
"Governing Council" is already pieced together on sectarian lines with the three main groupings represented according to their share of the population. between Sunni and Shia Muslims over which has the larger number of adherents, and even the Shia who are expected to take unhappy at the US reluctance to hold elections. new interim government involves reconfiguring the local city councils which have so far Council members. government. the divided along ethnic
the and and Fisk points out that US-appointed
power regardless.
But there are unresolved disputes
take. power in the new Iraqi government are
The American formula for composing the been appointed by US military commanders. •••• in conjunction with local Iraqi Governing
in each of the le provinces of Iraq, 15-member committees would be appointed to select members for caucuses that would pick legislators for a national assembly that would then choose a
t is still not clear whether the 25-member Governing Council, all of them
hand-picked by Paul Bremer, mainly but it is clear that many want to cling on to
And then there is the question of how many US troops will have to remain to prop up the regime. Already the US is demanding that their troops would require immunity from prosecution for any actions they may
British troops are also hiding behind as they try to tough out damaging allegations of theft and brutality, including the beating to death of the son of an Iraqi police colonel.
As the battles go on, it is not yet clear whether the US will be able to cobble together a regime that can enable Bush to begin withdrawing troops ahead November's US presidential elections.
They must be wishing that they had been offered the option of one of the earlier suggestions by the neo-conservatives - of installing a "democratic minded autocrat" to stamp Saddam-style authority on the shattered and squabbling nation, and restoring the oil supplies which were always at the centre of the invasion.
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