Iraq Democracy is like Bush style Democracy : Lie, Cheat, Steal

President Bush wanted to bring democracy to Iraq. But Bush has shown the American public that he doesn't agree with the historically held definition of democracy. Bush's administration has been rife with `unjust' policies, the no-bid contracts for Halliburton for example or the hiring of a private military that does not have to adhere to law (see stork on...)

So Iraq's democracy is turning out more like a Bush-style-Democracy.



Knowingly lie about the facts:

Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who until recently led the U.S. military's training effort in Iraq, said Iraqi army rolls are inflated by soldiers who are severely wounded but are still paid because the government lacks retirement money for them. An Iraqi army commander might also corruptly over-report the number of troops he has, Dempsey said, "so that he gets a payroll share more than he deserves and thereby pocket it." Sectarian agendas also afflict the hiring and firing process.

Train and supply the enemy

Similar problems, including "ghost" personnel, afflict the police, Dempsey said. Of the 32,000 Iraqi police lost from the U.S.-and-foreign-trained force of 188,000 in the 18 months before January, more than 14,000 were killed or severely wounded, 5,000 deserted, and the rest are "unaccounted for," he said.

Asked whether the absent police could be fighting U.S. troops, Dempsey replied, "We just don't know," adding that he is trying to track how many of the U.S.-trained forces end up in U.S. custody "down the road."

It’s truly rare that a president spends taxpayers’ money to train the enemy to kill U.S. troops. But Bush has pulled it off. ~ Andrew Sullivan

Provide patronage jobs for your friends

Moreover, Iraqi officials have sometimes overhired police, either to provide jobs or as the result of corruption, he said. For example, governors in Shiite holy cities such as Karbala and Najaf have padded the rolls by "something between 60,000 and 75,000 policemen on the payroll over the authorization" who are untrained by U.S. personnel, he said. Of that number, he said 10 to 20 percent "will be ghosts that are just there for payroll purposes."

Hire and fire for political reasons ( llike the attorney firing scandal going on now in Washington)

Dempsey said that Iraq's paramilitary force of national police is the most troubled by sectarian problems and that each week he received reports that local and national officers were hired or fired for sectarian or other "insidious" reasons. "In some cases, it is very clear that certain leaders are put into place because the government believes that it needs to have someone loyal to it above all."

Local police are performing well in Mosul but remain ineffective in large parts of Iraq, including Baghdad and the rest of Diyala province, because they are too bound by parochial political interests, Dempsey added. "I don't think local police will reach a level that you and I would recognize as local police until political progress is achieved."

That lasts sentence could be applied to the situation in the US. Here are three examples:

I don't think Department of Justice will reach a level that you and I would recognize as Department of Justice until political progress is achieved.

I don't think immigration reform will reach a level that you and I would recognize as immigration reform until political progress is achieved."

I don't think justice for those detained will reach a level that you and I would recognize as justice for those detained until political progress is achieved.