[news] So Much for Democracy

[Resist!ca]

So much for democracy by Robert Fisk; UK Independent; July 08, 2004   
Seventeen months after the Anglo-American invasion in which President George 
Bush promised to bring democracy to Iraq, the country's American-approved Prime 
Minister, Iyad Allawi, yesterday introduced legislation allowing the Iraqi 
authorities to impose martial law, curfews, a ban on demonstrations, the 
restriction of movement, phone-tapping, the opening of mail and the freezing of 
bank accounts. Military leaders may be appointed to rule parts of Iraq. A 
temporary reinstatement of Saddam Hussein's death penalty is also now probable. 
Already, therefore, Iraq has begun to look just like any other Arab country. 
But the insurgency, which the laws are supposedly intended to break, exploded 
in gunfire in the very centre of Baghdad just as the new legislation was 
announced.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/7/9/141424/7366