‘I did not want to be a collaborator’

I feared my role with the reconstruction council was sliding from what I had originally envisioned - working with allies in a democratic fashion - to collaborating with occupying forces.

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Though we council members came from all over the world, we are all Iraqis. I accepted the fact that we were a defeated country, and had no problem working with the US. But there seemed to be no interest on the part of the coalition in involving Iraqis as advisers on the future of their nation. Our role was very limited. Even reporters who visited us took note, writing that although the reconstruction council has an office within the presidential palace, there seems to be little done there apart from members reading their email.

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Iraq is now in almost total chaos. No one knows what is going on. We’re not talking here about trying to achieve an ideal political system. People cannot understand why a superpower that can amass all that military might can’t get the electricity back on.

First off, this “almost total chaos” is what some are calling “nearly flawless?” This really flies in the face of people who say the Bush administration is trying it’s hardest to get Iraq back on it’s feet. Of course these are also the people who say the guerillas that attack our soldiers are Baathists (Steve Gilliard at Daily Kos has been saying otherwise), Iraq was a threat to our national security, and Saddam was in active collaboration with terrorists. And they don’t read much. I feel safe, don’t you?