Stockholm Syndrome
by Jacob G. Hornberger
by Jacob G. Hornberger
In a surprise visit to Iraq, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made a point to lecture the new Iraqi officials on how to run a government. Warning the officials against “incompetence” and “corruption,” he said that he hoped that the government would include “highly competent people who are not going to politicize security forces.”
Reflecting the obeisant attitude that U.S. officials have come to expect from team players in the U.S. Empire or perhaps simply reflecting symptoms of the Stockholm Syndrome, Iraqi officials “greeted Rumsfeld's comments warmly,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
Too bad. Wouldn't it have been nice if those Iraqi officials had instead replied to Rumsfeld's lecture as follows:
“Rummy, we Iraqis don't need lectures about ‘competence' and ‘corruption' from you or any other U.S. government official. You people in the U.S. government corruptly manipulated intelligence to justify invading our country for the sake of substituting a new regime here in Iraq — one that would be obeisant and obedient to you so that you could keep permanent bases here in our country and permit your favorite companies to extract our country's oil. Your invasion has produced the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people, many more innocent people killed in the U.S. on September 11. Yet, you and other U.S. government officials have been rewarded, praised, and promoted for your corrupt achievements. By the way, are your members of Congress, whom President Bush controls more completely than Saddam controlled his, still having their family members' pockets lined with moolah? And would you please ask your ‘competent' and ‘honest' public officials what they did with the billions of dollars in Iraqi money that they put into their dirty little hands on that is now mysteriously unaccounted for? Please come back and see us … in a few years.”
Jacob Hornberger [send him mail] is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.
Copyright © 2005 Future of Freedom Foundation