A New Pseudo-State

Finally, the week of "transition" has come. The rolling of drums (or is that the boom of mortars?), the handing over of what our President insists is "complete, full sovereignty" to an "Iraqi government," the moment for which this whole war was supposedly fought (once, at least, that every other conceivable reason fell away). Quite literally a year late and a dollar -- give or take a few billion -- short, Iraq reenters the world with its sovereignty weighed down and constrained by 97 L. Paul Bremer-inspired occupation administration "legal orders" that, for years to come, are meant to control practically all Iraqi acts from who can take part in elections to how you drive your car (two handed, no horns except in "emergency situations"). In a piece at TomDispatch, Adam Hochschild considers the ragged "pseudostate" we've just constructed in Iraq in the context of the history of pseudostates and the hubris that invariably lies behind their creation.

I just want to suggest that while the Bush administration, faced with unexpected resistance -- ever wider, ever deeper, ever more violent and horrific -- has spent the last year or more planning, bungling, and fumbling to bring its Iraqi pseudostate into existence, it has also given birth to another pseudocreation: a pseudo-opposition.

Numerous links to additional commentary.