If this is democracy,they can have it

I remember 20 months ago how the US invasion was going to drive the price of oil to the low teens or even to single digits. I also remember how Iraqi production was going to pick up and how Iraq would be nominated to replace Saudi Arabia and, ultimately, Opec would be no more.

None of this has happened and most of the time oil prices are reaching unprecedented levels. Iraqi production is well below what it was before the invasion.

Potentially, Iraq had a capacity close to three million barrels per day (bpd). Now, after billions spent on repairs, Iraq's capacity is no more than 2.6 million to 2.8 million bpd and production is far less than that.

Its pipelines have been riddled by explosions and are no longer dependable, especially those exporting to Turkey.

Iraq is importing almost half of its fuel from outside at an enormous cost that is draining its meagre resources. Even so, the queues at petrol stations are as long as they used to be shortly after the invasion and people are suffering acute shortages of LPG and heating kerosene. Electricity generation is anything but sufficient. Even Baghdad is suffering cuts of 10 to 12 hours a day.

Overcharging

So, where did all the billions go? Mostly in the pockets of Halliburton and the like by overcharging both the American tax payer and the Iraqis and doing little to repair the oil industry.

Halliburton, the darling of Dick Cheney, George W. Bush's Vice-President, is still high on the saddle. Surely these points were of concern to the American people in deciding their voting preferences?

Alas, they were not.

Many around the world, Iraqis included, are not shocked by the fact that Bush has been reelected, they are more shocked at the people who reelected him, in spite of a dismal performance over his first term. It seems the Iraqis and many others for that matter, are up against the American people rather than George and his administration.

I have been trying for many months to convince myself that the American people will come to the rescue of Iraq and the rest of the world by sending George back to his ranch, where he rightly belongs, rather than allowing him to tinker with the Iraqi and US economies. My Western education has failed me as it has done on many other occasions.

My economist son tells me: "If you give the middle class a tax cut, they won't mind if you go off and kill a million people. This is how Bush won this election." I hope my son is not right, though I find it difficult not to agree with him at this moment.

The American people never enjoyed their tax cut. The price of imported oil absorbed all or most of that cut. George Bush, with all his bravado, could not deliver the price of oil before his invasion, never mind a lower price.

This war, in terms of American casualties, cost and destruction of resources would have made any other nation think twice before giving George an open-ended mandate to carry on regardless.

Are the horrors of Abu Ghraib prison not important for the American people and does this reelection exonerate George and his commanders? Who, after this election, is going to demand that they be brought to justice? It was known before the election that the war killed 100,000 Iraqis, mostly through American and British bombing.

Confirmation

Violence and atrocities will continue as long as the perpetrators are amply rewarded. Forget the elections and the transfer of power to the Iraqis. The Iraqis know very well who is in the driver's seat and who will be there after the elections.

To make matters worse, Fallujah was attacked at the same time it was announced that George Bush had won the elections. He is simply confirming to the Iraqis and the world that nothing will stand in his way to deliver democracy and elections to the Iraqis.

Fallujah will not be the last city to be destroyed in Iraq for the sake of democracy and elections, at least 35 others are in line. Can anyone say the American people themselves are unaware of all these atrocities? As we say in Arabic: "It is a tragedy if you know, and a bigger tragedy if you do not."

Since September 11, and even before, the American fear-generating machine has been working overtime. Arab countries, in particular, are portrayed as potential enemies and as terrorist-breeding nations.

With this reelection, the world has been given no choice except to stand up to this barbaric onslaught before George Bush destroys another country or two as well as the world economy.

Everything is possible just as long as Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld can find a sufficient number of soldiers who are willing to die in George's next crusade.

But did the American people have a choice? In retrospect, my answer is no. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, on the most important issues of the day, was only slightly different from Bush and he never took a stand that would have made a difference. The Americans were left between the devil and the deep blue sea and we know what they have chosen.

Saadalla Al Fathi is the former head of the Energy Studies Department at the Opec Secretariat and is currently working as an adviser.