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Bush, Blair and Howard would dearly love to move on, to shelter in that obedient, obeisant world and their shallow argument that the global community must deal with the reality on the ground in Iraq; hoping, too, that we'll just slip-slide with them, over and around their recklessness in dragging Iraq into the War on Terror.
But legitimacy is truth and questions of legitimacy will keep drawing us back to the propriety of their decision-making on the road to Baghdad - the lies, the half-truths, all the obsfucation. This is not just a history lesson; or a debating point for Americans and Australians as they luxuriate in their democratic right to vote on the performance of their leaders in the coming months.
In less than two weeks the US-led occupation of Iraq gives way to the saddest little "sovereign" government the world has seen in a while.
Its legitimacy is in doubt and, therefore its viability, as much because of the false-pretence by Washington, London and Canberra to justify war as by Iraqi suspicion of the democratic fundamentals of interim government by appointment, by the continued occupation of their country and by a firm foreign grip on their treasury purse-strings.
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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/17/1087245046825.html?oneclick=true