Freedom a long way away

While the American media debates its coverage of the Iraq war – and whether the opening of schools is actually a news story – Robert Fisk continues his examination of daily life there. Today, he looks at the Iraqi constitution and the “Alice-in-Wonderland” mindset of Western officials and journalists in the Green Zone:

“In the Alice-in-Wonderland Iraq of Messrs Bush and Blair – inhabited, too, by the elected government of Iraq and its constitutional drafters and quite a few Western journalists – there are no such problems to cope with. The air-conditioners hiss away – there are generators to provide 24-hour power – and almost all senior officials have palatial homes in the heavily protected “Green Zone” which was once Saddam Hussein’s Republican Palace compound. No power cuts for them, no petrol queues, no kidnaps and murders.”

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