Bush's Iraq an Appointocracy
January 22nd, 2004By Naomi Klein "The people of Iraq are free," declared U.S. President George W. Bush in Tuesday's State of the Union. The day before, 100,000 Iraqis begged to differ. They took to the streets of Baghdad shouting "Yes, yes to elections. No, no to selection." According to Iraq occupation chief Paul Bremer, there really is no difference between the White House's version of freedom and the one being demanded on the street. Asked Friday whether his plan to form an Iraqi government through appointed caucuses was headed towards a clash with Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's call for direct elections, Bremer said he had no "fundamental disagreement with him." It was, he said, a mere quibble over details. "I don't want to go into the technical details of refinements… There are if you talk to experts in these matters all kinds of ways to organize partial elections and caucuses. And I'm not an election expert, so I don't want to go into the details. But we've always said we're willing to consider refinements." I'm not an election expert either, but I'm pretty sure there are differences here than cannot be refined. Al-Sistani's supporters want every Iraqi to have...