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Fukiyama Recants

On January 26, 1998, a group of prominent hawks sent a letter to President Clinton urging him to adopt an aggressive strategy for removing Saddam Hussein from office. Among the signers of the letter were the usual suspects: Elliott Abrams, Richard L. Armitage William J. Bennett, John Bolton, Robert Kagan, William Kristol, Richard Perle, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, James Woolsey and Francis Fukiyama.

Fukiyama tells the Independent he’s had some second thoughts:

I signed the letter, but I have not been at all happy with the way they have executed this. The letter did not say you should go into this unilaterally, that you can do this in contempt of the views of the rest of the world. That was not what I signed up to. I don't think Iraq is the single most serious problem in the world and that therefore you can subordinate all of your alliance relationships and goodwill with the rest of the world to this. It is not a good trade-off.

Let’s see if the assholes who’ve been fixating on the Dixie Chicks will turn on one of their own.

posted by Jerry Bowles 11:20 PM

The Iraqi People Are Waiting

"There has got to be an effective administration from day one. People need water and food and medicine, and the sewers have to work, the electricity has to work. And that's a coalition responsibility." Paul Wolfowitz, April 6, 2003

posted by Jerry Bowles 7:41 PM

Kind of Makes You Proud, Doesn't It?

"Is this your liberation?" one frustrated shopkeeper screamed at the crew of a U.S. tank as a gang of youths helped themselves to everything in his small hardware store and carted booty off in the wheelbarrows that had also been on sale.

"Hell, it ain't my job to stop them," drawled one young marine, lighting a cigarette as he looked on. "Goddamn Iraqis will steal anything if you let them. Look at them." Reuters

This must be the "untidiness" that Demented Don is talking about.

Is it possible that these jerks didn't anticipate that when the government collapsed, anarchy would follow and failed to have a plan to deal with it. Are Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz and Cheney really that dumb or do they really want chaos to prevail.

posted by Jerry Bowles 6:48 PM

Well, It's Not Osama But, Hey, We're Here

The US flag used to cover Saddam's head was recovered from the Pentagon after the September 11 attack and carried to Baghdad by Marines. Daily Telegraph

posted by Jerry Bowles 5:13 PM

Iraqi War Dictionary

Shock and awe – The reaction of American taxpayers when they realize it’s going to cost them $20 billion a year forever to rebuild Iraq.

Fog of war – Cover used by administration to attempt to push through self-serving legislation (like making the Patriot Act permanent) while the public is distracted by saturation war coverage.

Pockets of resistance – Isolated parts of government that are not quite on message, i.e. the State Department.

Embedded – A novel new way to make sure the reporter with the best film footage gets top billing whether he has the most important story or not.

Tipping point - When the CIA guy gives the warlord money not to make trouble.

Peshmerga – Trendy new pram. Very popular with mothers on Manhattan’s West Side.

posted by Jerry Bowles 9:01 AM

Kleptocracy Iraqi Style

MIT and University of Chicago grad and Iraqi dictator-in-waiting Ahmad Chalabi is the perfect kleptocrat to kick off the era of American neo-colonialism.

Not only has Chalabi been sentenced to 22 years in prison in Jordan for his involvement bilking money during the downfall of his Petra Bank, two of his brothers were sentenced to six months in prison in Switzerland for falsifying documents connected with Socofi, a Swiss bank owned by Ahmad. According to the Swiss newspaper Les Temps, Socofi burned investors for more than Sfr 140 million. While Swiss authorities have not elaborated on the full extent of improper activities connected to the Chalabi operation, links to drug money laundering have not been ruled out.

Chalabi is a Shi’ite Muslim like most residents of southern Iraq. But he hasn’t lived in his country since 1958. It may be that his talents as a kleptocrat qualify him to be the leader of an oil-rich baksheesh nation. As leader of the Iraqi National Congress with close ties to factions in the CIA, he has been a poster boy for more than $120 million in failed US covert ops conducted between 1991 and 1998 and designed to topple the Saddam Hussein regime. He may be a Cosmopolitan Iraqi exile with Jewish friends like Richard Perle and PR pals like the Washington, DC-based Rendon Group. But based on his track record, front-man Chalabi doesn't know the come spot from the pass line. At least how they'd characterize it in Vegas.

Chalabi ran the Geneva branch of the Lebanese bank, Mebco, which was shut down by the Swiss Federal Banking Commission in 1989. Mebco is part of the Middle East Banking Corporation of Beirut, which is owned by the Chalabi family. It was only one of three financial establishments in Switzerland authorized to issue Visa cards.

Where might Chalabi rate with other US-backed kleptocrats? Right up there with Alan Garcia and Alberto Fujimori of Peru, who were tainted by drug money and robbed their nation blind. And Argentina’s Peronist leader Carlos Saul Menem, who did time on corruption charges employed a brother-in-law as Customs Director who was a senior official of the Syrian Ba’ath party.

It is pure folly to buy in to the US propaganda and assume that Iraq will emerge from the pathology of underdevelopment and become a true democracy. At best, it might eventually hold free elections on the order of what passes for free elections in Mexico.

But look at our track record. We are most comfortable installing and supporting dictators. We supported Saddam, and the Shah. We support the Saudi royals. We supported Papadopolous in Greece, Mobutu in the Congo and Idi Amin in Uganda. Pinochet in Chile, Peron in Argentina and Geisel in Brazil. Not to mention Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, Somoza in Nicaragua, Stroessner in Paraguay, Perez-Jiminez in Brazil, Batista in Cuba and Papa Doc and Baby Doc in Haiti. And don’t forget Suharto in Indonesia.

Maybe Chalabi can add Bob Vesco, Bernie Ebbers, Mark Rich and Enron’s Jeff Skilling to his kitchen cabinet. They’ll know what to do with those petrodollars.

posted by Groom 3:19 AM