Cherry Picking Democracy in Iraq

Soon we will be hearing Bush's until now secret plan to fix Iraq. There doesn't seem to be much doubt about the nature, only the numbers. We're going to send more troops. Bush has consulted with lots of people before making this decision.

Except the Iraqi government, which clearly doesn't want it. Iraq being a democracy [sic], the government in sensitive to the wishes of its people. Those people are now clearly in favor of America packing up and leaving. They may also be fearful of the likely consequences, as well they should, but they want us out. They watched America stay for almost four years and continue to lose, or not to win as quickly as we'd like as the administration prefers to put it. They see no prospect of good results from America's continued involvement, which they would like to see terminated.

But we won't, because whatever nonsense we spew about the sovereignty of the Iraqi government, they have none. We are the occupiers and we will decide how many troops conduct the occupation and for how long. This creates a fatal contradiction. We want to raise the legitimacy of the Iraqi government we have created, but because we have created it and won't let it tell us to leave, its illegitimacy becomes transparent to every Iraqi.