Terrell E. Arnold, (A World Less Safe), exposes the myth that we plan an early withdrawal from Iraq. The largest U.S. embassy in the world is being built in Bagdad costing US taxpayers in excess of 1 billion dollars. The mission, when fully operational, will serve as “transformational diplomacy”, a fancy word meaning that we as the lone ‘Goliath’ will continue to flex our mighty muscles to neutralize any upstart ‘David’s’ in the region.

The new Constitution imposed on the Iraqis by the former czar of Iraq, Paul Bremer, forbids Iraqis from developing any new oil wells and easing the high unemployment problem. Only US oil companies reserve this right. This theft of Iraqi resources has enriched US contractors to the detriment of Iraq and has had a predictable impact in intensifying the hostility towards foreign workers and the US military.

Meanwhile, reconstruction of the Iraqi infrastructure, destroyed by massive aerial bombing by US led occupation forces, moves at glacial speed. Contrast this with rapid construction of permanent military bases convinces most Iraqis that our intentions are imperial in nature and will result in greater misery to a people already sinking to the depths of despair. Equally disturbing, is the targeted assassinations of scores of Iraqi academics, intellectuals and flight into exile of others leaving Iraq barren of future leadership and technocrats.