Just in time for Halloween, He's Baaaaaaaaack!Who?
Ahmed Chalabi, of course! The future Saddam Hussein replacement who was picked before the first shot was fired in the Second Iraq Invasion. I've mentioned him a time or two before here, and have been pooh-poohed for it. Detractors have said, "He's out of power. Bush and Gates hate him. He's dead meat, Iraqi Roadkill."
Sure.
From McClatchy Newspapers' Washington Bureau we read:
Ahmad Chalabi, the controversial, ubiquitous Iraqi politician and one-time Bush administration favorite, has re-emerged as a central figure in the latest U.S. strategy for Iraq.His latest job: To press Iraq's central government to use early security gains from the surge to deliver better electricity, health, education and local security services to Baghdad neighborhoods. That's the next phase of the surge plan. Until now, the U.S. military, various militias, insurgents and some U.S. backed groups have provided those services without great success.
That the U.S. and Iraqi officials are again turning to Chalabi, this time to restore life to Baghdad neighborhoods, speaks to his resiliency in this nascent government. It's also, some say, his latest effort to promote himself as a true national advocate for everyday Iraqis.
Chalabi, in the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, provided White House and Pentagon officials and journalists with a stream of bogus or exaggerated intelligence about Iraq's weapons programs and ties to terrorism. He also suggested that he'd lead Iraq to make peace with Israel and welcome permanent U.S. military bases, which could apply pressure to Iran and Syria.
But Chalabi's proven a resilient politician since then and Iraqis yearn for someone who can make the government help them. In sermons in the holy Shiite city of Najaf
and in Sunni newspapers alike, Iraqis here often reject their central government, saying it has done nothing for them since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. Instead, the government's critics say, local tribal leaders and residents rejuvenated neighborhoods by pushing fighters out and securing the streets.
I'm starting a pool here and now on when he seizes power; the winner gets an all-expense-paid trip to the Green Zone courtesy of Chalabi's Curries, the new catering service there; a New Dictatorship in every order! (Images courtesy of Wikipedia and The Iraqi National Congress.)
