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Iraq – Conspiracy and Mistrust
Michael Gordon, co-writer of Judith Miller’s famous nuclear Iraq scare pieces, writes about a meeting between CentCom commander Admiral Fallon, U.-S: Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker and the Iraqi president al-Maliki.
This reporter, who is accompanying Admiral Fallon on his trip to Iraq, was allowed into the meeting. It was only at the end of the meeting that American officials agreed that it could be on the record.
Three questions:
- Isn’t this just a bit odd that a New York Times stenographer takes part in such a very high level meeting?
- Where is the primacy of diplomacy when the Admiral leads such talks and the Ambassador is only ‘in presence’?
- Did Maliki agree to put his remarks on the record?
The most important issue on the U.S. agenda was, of course, – oil:
Adm. William J. Fallon, told Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki that the Iraqi government should aim to complete a law on the division of oil proceeds by next month.
Not that there is any chance that al-Maliki will get the oil-law, written by BearingPoint under an USAID contract, through parliament. But the U.S. keeps insisting:
In the meeting, Admiral Fallon focused on Iraq’s oil law, assuming it was closest to completion. “Is it reasonable to expect it to be completed in July?” he asked. “We have to show some progress in July for the upcoming report [to Congress].”
As it sounds, Maliki didn’t commit to anything. Indeed he doubts that any progress would actually help him:
At one point, Mr. Maliki wondered aloud whether Congress would really give the Iraqis credit for tackling tough issues if they completed the oil law. Admiral Fallon reassured him that most Americans wanted the Iraqi government to succeed.
He certainly knows that the oil-law is not the only one point on the U.S. agenda. The others, probably even more important, are a status-of-force agreement and the legality of the permanent bases the U.S. wants to keep. (Gordon does not mentions these.)
What would be to gain for Maliki if he would agree on any of these points? Isn’t it much more likely that he will gain more by not pushing these issues?
Other points discussed included Iranian influence in Iraq. When the Admiral asked Maliki to work against ‘weapons from Iran’, he responded by challenging the U.S. to put more efforts into curbing the Sunni jihadi pipeline from Syria to Iraq.
In conclusion Maliki doesn’t come off as a U.S. puppet, and that is exactly where Admiral Fallon and Crocker have a problem.
Maliki did close with an interesting remark:
“There are two mentalities in this region,” he said. “Conspiracy and mistrust.”
Ohh really? What happened that such odd mentalities evolved?
Performance, eh?
There are a few critical “performances” coming up this very year.
There’s the September Surge Minuet, a carefully choreographed Congressional Dance piece to be performed sometime after Labor Day. In this interpretive item, bullshit artists of both Parties will weave a hypnotically soothing series of faux political votes and showdowns in the Halls of Congress, weaving this way and that, but always ending up at Business As Usual. The Iraq War once again stars as the almost-rescued Princess Imbroglio, ever hopeful yet forever doomed to continue a life of bloodshed and brutality in the distant deserts of Mesopotamia.
There’s the Rock ‘n A Hard Place Muslim Marching Band Ballet, coming to the Iraqi Parliament in December, wherein the democratically elected ministers refuse to renew the annual UN Mandate (the legal invitation to occupy our country), over the strenuous objections of Maliki and Bush. Maliki did a perfect pirouette around the issue last December, stunning the spectators by simply renewing the UN Invitation for a year under his own signature. But in a bracing bit of stagecraft, the Iraqi Parliament just passed a law forbidding him to pull that shit ever again, so in December it appears that America will be dis-invited to perform piracy upon the populace. Oooh — the suspense is unbearable. Will America go? Or will the Iraqi Government go first? Don’t miss this command performance!
And you won’t be able to miss the Front Runner Fandango, to be performed more or less continuously for the next 17 months on American TeeVee, wherein horses from both teams (Red and Blue) jockey for the coveted First Position, such as First in Funding, First in Polls, First to Define an Issue, and First in Iowa. None of these horses has any intention of leaving the circular track that is Iraq. Hell, you can’t be in this race if you don’t stay on that track. This production does promise, however, to excite the populace to its usual state of jaundiced apathy, so do keep an eye on this one!
Meanwhile, stage layout, choreography, public relations, handbills, key players, upper management and actors for this year’s next big hit, Whacking the Persians, proceeds apace — but without Peter Pace, the reluctant producer who likes neither the script nor the setting for this one. When his understudy, Admiral Mullen, takes over in September, we can expect things to sail through right smartly! Who likes a sailor, then?
What an exciting theater season for all the world to see! Stay tuned to discover how America — that overwrought, overstretched, overrated Empire of YesterYear manages to not only stay in Iraq, but to expand its grand opera into a three ring circus stretching across fabled Syriana, the Arc of Oil, the Cradle of Crude, and now to be home to a Nuclear Nightmare!
(Coming soon to a Theater of Operations near you.)
Posted by: Antifa | Jun 12 2007 18:26 utc | 7
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