Chalabi

Middle East Online

We can't win. We went into the Iraqi misadvanture on the basis of misinformation provided by Chalabi with the intention of installing him as a friendly US puppet. A protege of Cheney who hadn't lived in Iraq for 30 years, it would be hard to imagine anyone whom Iraqis could find more objectionable than this quintessential carpetbagger.

But now that his offices have been raided and vandalized he seems set to become another culture hero

I have nothing interesting to say in this post--just trying to articulate my own churning ambivalence. This affair suggests that there is nothing that the US could do that would even count as a friendly gesture much less contribute to improving conditions. The only solution is to get out. And forget about any multilateral alternative, UN peacekeepers or whatever: what real chance is it that Iraqis would take more kindly to any occupying force?

These are primitive tribal people. Only a ruthless authoritarian regime could keep the lid on and provide minimally decent conditions for a small educated class. We lifted the lid: the only thing left is to let them duke it out amongst themselves and create the squalid, violent, supersitious hellhole they want to live in--their indigenous culture.