By David Swanson, 5/11/07
The new war money bill passed by the House on May 10 does not
include even a nonbinding end date for the war. It does fund the war
for a shorter period of time at one shot, but the Senate doesn’t like
that idea, and the bill must be reconciled with whatever the Senate
passes. So, what’s left in the bill that Bush doesn’t like? Benchmarks!
But there are two problems with this. Bush DOES like them. And
they’re NOT benchmarks. A benchmark is a standard of excellence against
which other items are measured. Or it’s a measure of progress toward a
goal. The so-called benchmarks in the House bill are nothing of the
sort.
Here’s the relevant section:
“SEC. 1710. (a) BENCHMARKS- Notwithstanding any other provision of
law, fifty percent of the funds appropriated by this Act for assistance
for Iraq under the headings `Economic Support Fund’ and `International
Narcotics and Law Enforcement’ shall be withheld from obligation until
the President certifies to the Committees on Appropriations and Foreign
Relations of the Senate and the Committees on Appropriations and
Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives that the Government of
Iraq has-“
Then the bill lists five (count em!) so-called “benchmarks,” starting with:
“(1) enacted a broadly accepted hydro-carbon law that equitably shares oil revenues among all Iraqis;”
This law has been drafted. Vice President Dick Cheney’s lobbying for
its passage may have been the primary motivation for his recent trip to
Iraq. Far from equitably sharing oil revenues, it hands the bulk of
them over to foreign (probably largely US and British) corporations.
This is the number one “benchmark”, the theft of the oil of a nation we
aggressively attacked and occupied. Is this a benchmark against which
we will measure the theft of Iran’s oil? Or in what sense is this a
benchmark? And what about it are we to imagine Bush does not like?
“(2) adopted legislation necessary for the conduct of provincial and
local elections, taken steps to implement such legislation, and set a
schedule to conduct provincial and local elections;”
This is ludicrous. The majority of Iraqis have already backed ending
the occupation. A majority of the members of their current parliament
have signed a bill to end the occupation. And we’re going to threaten
to end the occupation unless they hold elections and act like a
democracy? Is this a benchmark against which we’ll measure episodes of
Monty Python? Or in what sense is this a benchmark?
“(3) reformed current laws governing the de-Baathification process
to allow for more equitable treatment of individuals affected by such
laws;”
Oh, great, we’re also going to threaten to leave unless they undo
destructive laws that we imposed on them. Of course, we’ll tell them
what the new laws should be. But they’ll still have a democracy,
because – don’t forget – we’ve already demanded that they hold local
elections. But who will get the contract for the vote-counting machines?
“(4) amended the Constitution of Iraq consistent with the principles contained in Article 137 of such constitution; and”
This involves a process of amending “their” Constitution. We are
demanding that they complete it or else” we’ll end our occupation of
their country.
“(5) allocated and begun expenditure of $10,000,000,000 in Iraqi
revenues for reconstruction projects, including delivery of essential
services, on an equitable basis.”
Hmmm. So, after destroying their country, occupying it for years,
slaughtering perhaps a million citizens, driving millions more to flee
the country, and generally ruining their society, while dumping
hundreds of billions of US dollars into war profiteering corporations
pretending to reconstruct Iraq, we’re going to demand that the Iraqis
shell out $10 billion to pay for the reconstruction themselves. Or
else, you guessed it, we’ll leave and allow them to begin ending their
nightmare without our “help”.
These are our much vaunted BENCHMARKS. This is how the Democratic
Party is “standing up to” Bush and Cheney. Let’s face it. The Iraqi
government is better representing the wishes of the American people in
this matter right now. The following groups and organizations want to
end the occupation:
The Iraqi Parliament
The Iraqi people
The active-duty US troops in Iraq
The American people
The following groups and organizations want to keep funding this war:
The White House
The Congress
The war profiteers
The U.S. media
But who is most impacted by the other benchmarks, the graves, the
endless miles of dead bodies? Imagine trying to fit a million, three
thousand, four hundred dead bodies into the U.S. Capitol. They would
not fit. Not unless somebody burned them. Come to think of it, that
might be a contract worth bribing someone for.