Editorial: Iraqis & Benchmarks

Iraqi people need to show some responsibility!



That's the call of the administration and many in Congress. Those lazy, ungrateful Iraqis, after the US started an illegal war, invaded their country, destroyed their country, just can't roll up their sleeves and show some gratitude, let alone kiss some butt. How dare the Iraqi parliament begin addressing the need for foreign forces to leave their country!



"Benchmarks" translates as "theft of oil" the way it's currently being used. Many have addressed this and done so repeatedly. Most recently, Matthew Rothschild (The Progressive) noted of the flurry of meetings last week between puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki and US officials:



And what were they leaning on him for, above all?
Passage of the new oil bill, which would turn over Iraqi's liquid treasure to foreign corporations like ExxonMobil.
This is the paramount concern of the Bush Administration.
It is being sold to the American people as a way to equalize revenues to various segments of Iraqi society.
But the true reason for it is to line the pockets of U.S. oil executives.
"The law would transform Iraq's oil industry from a nationalized model closed to American oil companies except for limited (although highly lucrative) marketing contracts into a commercial industry, all-but-privatized, that is fully open to all international oil companies," Antonia Juhasz, author of The Bush Agenda, wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times on March 13.



If it didn't register with you last week, you must have missed War Pornographer Michael Gordon Tuesday report where he revealed that, good stenographer that he is, he accomanied US Admiral William J. Fallon and US ambassador Ryan Crocker to a meeting with al-Maliki that was supposed to be off the record (Gordo whined and whined and they finally, after the meeting, gave him permission to write of it -- Fallon and Crocker gave permission, no word on al-Maliki's permission but puppet's don't have privacy rights) in which Gordo didn't even feel the need to conceal that there were no benchmarks as far as Fallon and Crocker were concerned other than the privatization/theft of Iraqi oil.



By the next day, Damien Cave's "Iraqis Are Failing to Meet U.S. Benchmarks" was back to using 'benchmarks' -- plural. But if you were confused by "benchmark" swiftly becoming "benchmarks" in one day's time, Damien Cave's "Second U.S. Official Presses Iraqi Premier for Action" (also last Wednesday) set you wise about what al-Maliki and John Negroponte (deputy at the State Department) discussed:



Mr. Maliki, in a statement after the meeting, said Iraq's government was determined to persuade Parliament to approve several proposals that the Americans had identified as benchmarks, including an oil law that could more evenly distribute revenues to provinces and among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.



Theft of the oil (but remember the illegal war never had anything to do with oil and the maps drawn up before 9-11 for Cheney's secret task force were mere coincidence). That's the 'benchmark' and few in the US Congress have addressed that or called it out.



So let's talk benchmarks.



IRIN, last week, reported on the fact that Iraqi children are now having to work to support their family and interviewed one 12 year-old-boy who works a 12-hour day doing just that. Though Paul Bremer was interested in cutting off the safety net of food subsidies, he wasn't interested in providing for Iraqis. (Another problem with contractors shipped into Iraq, at a time when Iraqis see massive unemployment, jobs that are available go to outsiders.) Apparently, public health also wasn't an issue which is why malnutrition runs rampant in Iraq, why cholera is now a serious problem and polio's a problem as well.



Meanwhile, Paul Bremer fled Baghdad like a thief and, strangely, $9 billion under his control is unaccounted for to this day. Now we aren't accusing Bremer. We'd assumed if he personally pocketed it, he could do better than SuperCuts for a hair cut. But where did that money go?



It didn't go towards reconstruction as it was supposed to. And, oh yes, potable water and reliable electricity never came to Iraq. Over four years after the illegal war began, neither can be depended upon.



Where did the money go? To bribe tribal leaders? That's really worked out well, hasn't it?



Now we firmly believe that US troops neeed to leave Iraq ASAP. We're not arguing against that. We are stating that the US government has responsibilities that need to be met. So the next time a politician wants to talk 'tough' and note Iraq's 'need' to meet so-called benchmarks, you need to absorb two things. 'Benchmarks' are the sort of the talk that will keep the US occupying Iraq (illegally) for years and 'benchmarks' fail to recognize that the US never met its own obligation. It's easy to talk 'tough.' It's much harder to talk truth which must be why presidential candidates Barack Obama and Joe Biden are all over the 'benchmark' talk.