Shortly after the words were spoken by the President the Administration started redefining “sovereignty”. What the Iraqi people were going to receive was something called “limited sovereignty.” Now the minions of the Bush Administration are attempting to define that phrase as used in the New Dictionary for the New American Century that they are writing.

The current, and we hope final, justification for the invasion and conquest of Iraq is to confer upon its people the blessings of democratic liberty and freedom. The evil dictator who blighted their nation was deposed more than a year ago and the President declared that the mission had been accomplished. Major combat was declared over. When American soldiers and Iraqi men and women continued to die in an unremitting guerrilla war those phrases also had to be redefined for the New Dictionary for the New American Century. Understanding the language of the New American Century takes a good deal of work.

Yesterday Deputy Secretary of Defense Wolfowitz and Deputy Secretary of State Armitage appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to attempt to define of what the sovereignty to be handed over to the Iraqi people on June 30th consists. The best that they could tell us was what was not included in sovereignty as defined in the New Dictionary for the New American Century. For example, it does not include the power and authority to direct and control the rebuilding of their economic infrastructure, that function has already been contracted to Halliburton. It does not include the authority to control the exploitation and marketing of their natural resources or the proceeds of their sale. It does not include the authority to control, direct or exclude foreign armed forces operating on its territory. It does not include authority over the thousands of Iraqi men and women held in captivity in US operated military prisons or to regulate their treatment. And, most basically, it does not include the authority to formulate new institutions of government nor to determine the method by which the officers of their own government will be selected.

What does sovereignty mean for the Iraqi people? Well, it means that L. Paul Bremer will be out of a job on July 1 and a new American Ambassador will be running things from a New American Embassy with the largest embassy staff in history. It means that on July 1, 2004 the Administration can celebrate the birth of a new Free Iraq with appropriate ceremony accompanied by the click of camera shutters.

Welcome to Free Iraq – what ever you want that to mean.