The most disappointed man this weekend in Iraq (or Paris, or wherever he is right now) must be Ahmad Chalabi. As I wrote here on November 23, when three Iraqi pols came to do some pre-election bootlicking in the imperial capital, Washington, in mid-November, each of them was trying to “sell” himself as the empire’s favored candidate in a different way:
- If [Iyad] Allawi’s shtick to the Bushites is that he’s a determined secularist, and [SCIRI pol Adel] Abdul-Mahdi’s that he is an authentice voice of Shiite Iraqis, then Chalabi’s is that he can cover both these bases, and more..
But he was jumping the gun a bit, wasn’t he? The statement that Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani distributed yesterday spelled out that those who follow his spiritual leadership– that is, apparently, the vast majority of that 60-plus percent of Iraqis who are Shiites– should not split their community’s vote in the December 15 election…. And therefore– though he had no need to spell this out explicitly– they should vote for the “United Iraqi Alliance”, the same Shiite mega-list that won last January’s elections.
Which sinks the chances for Chalabi’s “List 569”.
The most interesting politics inside Iraq will now be taking place within the UIA’s coalition. Until now, the Islamic Daawa Party has been top dog there. But their leader, Ibrahim Jaafari, has kind of bombed politically (and yes, indeed, also “bombed” opponents, militarily– but that’s another issue) during his few months’ term as Iraq’s extremely nominal “transitional prime minister”. The hungry hounds of the apparently better organized Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq have very evidently been snapping at his heels. Hence, for example, SCIRI pol Adel Abdul-Mahdi’s recent visit to DC.
In addition, Moqtada Sadr has joined the UIA morw wholeheartedly than he did back in January.
But I’m definitely not going to sit around crying over Chalabi’s disappointment. What a shyster. It’s past time that the citizenries of Jordan, the US, and Iraq– all of whom have been majorly taken for a ride by this con-man– started demanding accountability and our money back from him!
Same here. No tears for Chalabi, and no tears for Hamza Rabia allegedly blown up by the Pakistanis, even though the missile came from and unmaned drone that only the US flies. Targeted killings are fine as long as their attributed to muslims, I guess.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051204/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_al_qaida_killed
Apparently the two Syrian bodyguards also died, no tears for them either.
No tears for Allawi who was stoned out of a shrine, but we may need some tears once we find who was in the Lebanon mass graves next to old Syrian bases:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051204/wl_nm/lebanon_graves_dc
and of course we may need some serious lacrimals for the gutsy Christian peace activists kidnapped in Iraq.
David
tsk, tsk…you segue from banker, provocateur, politician, counselor to Presidents, Iraqi Supreme Ayatollahs, Iranian mullahs, Ahmed Chalabi, The Man of A Thousand Masks, to a group of observations that are not only blatantly politically incorrect but off-topic as well…namely, the Syrian grisly mischief in Lebanon, the divine inspired actions of the mostly foreign jihadist Defenders of the Faith in Iraq and the “martyrdom” of a key operational leader of Global Jihad in Pakistan…the topic, if you didn’t notice is the cunning Iraqi Shiite friend, ex-friend and now friend again – or so he says -of “Imperial Washington.”
I am sorry if I broke the thematic rules, I was following the tear sheding theme. I even resisted the temptation to comment on the Indonesian’s waking up to radical Islam turning their citizens into suicide bombers:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051204/ap_on_re_as/indonesia_suicide_bombers
It’s got some jewels like:
In at least a couple of cases, it looks like they’re going after the lowest common denominator, relatively simple village boys, and recruiting them with frightening ease and dizzying speed,” said Ken Conboy, author of several books on Southeast Asian terrorism.
“Sometimes the guy’s gone for just a few weeks or months and he’s strapping bombs to his back.”
Among the promises made to the would-be bombers is that martyrdom is a fast track to heaven — not just for them, but for 72 of their relatives, he and others say.
Such a message would resonate with many young men whose families have lived for generations in the same poor village and see little hope of ever making something of themselves, said Solahudin Wahid, vice chairman of the country’s largest Islamic organization Nadhlatul Ulama.
“Some of these young men don’t have a deep knowledge of Islam and can easily be brainwashed into militancy,” he said. “They are easily tantalized. Now it’s our turn to teach them. Islam is not like that. Muslims are not allowed to attack if not attacked themselves.”