Madness US style

May 16 2008 by Val Javin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

IF any proof was needed that this is indeed a mad, mad world, here it is!

From inside a surreal bubble known as the Green Zone, the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority attempted to rule Iraq following the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Using internal documents and interviews, the author describes this ill-prepared attempt to build American democracy in a war-torn Middle Eastern country.

While those outside this Oz-like zone looted or starved, inside American cafes served grits, cornbread and a bottomless supply of pork; workers lazed by luxury pools. Aides disbanded the Iraqi army and formed a bizarre police force...new traffic laws were introduced, modelled on the state of Maryland..Baghdad’s stock exchange was given to a 24-year-old who had never worked in finance!

If only this was Joseph Heller’s Catch-22! Unfortunately, this is fact and is a staggering account of why American occupation of Iraq has gone so terribly wrong.

CHRIS BURGESS