Is Maliki the New Saddam?

The only rational justification that the Bush administration ever publically gave for the War in Iraq was the desire to replace a tyrant (Saddam Hussein) with a democratic government. That assertion has always been the hardest one for opponents of the war to counter, and it was the last justification that stood up to any kind of scrutiny. Until this week.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has proposed a list of laws that will do away with most of the democratic reforms in Iraq’s new constitution. The draft laws include the following:

• A proposal to legalize a new government body, the State Ministry for National Security, which will run a “political crimes directorate.” The new directorate will monitor political parties and nongovernmental organizations (NGO’s) in much the same way Saddam’s Baath party monitored its opponents.

• A proposed law to give the Iraqi government complete control over NGO’s, including requiring government review and approval of every single donation and project undertaken, and every office opened and run by all NGO’s. Simple registration of a new NGO (as now required under Iraqi law and the governments of most western nations) is not sufficient, apparently.

• A law to put heavy restrictions on Iraqi media that would require all journalists to be licensed by the Iraqi government and would give the government say over who is hired and fired by media organizations. The law also allows the Iraqi government to censor specific stories that would “compromise the security and stability of the country,” and it forbids the use of anonymous sources.
  

Alaa Talibani, head of the NGO committee in the Iraqi Parliament, said: “So many articles in this law go against what it means to have a free civil society, against the fundamental principles of liberty, and even against our own constitution.”

That, as Saddam Hussein might say, is the point. The US people, however, should rigorously question the whole point of having engaged in a long, bloody conflict just to replace one dictator with another.

[Source: “Iraq’s Maliki Seeks Tighter Media Grip,” Charles Levinson, The Wall Street Journal, 8/8/09.]