A Good First Step

Who could have ever predicted that members of the Shi’a majority would rebel like this? They hated Saddam and would surely be grateful that the US had liberated them. Yet, there were some little clues. Even during the exciting early days of the liberation, days when George W. Bush was so proud of his accomplishment — “I love the stories about people saying, ‘Isn’t it wonderful to be able to express our religion, the Shia religion, on a pilgrimage…’ — there were some signs of trouble:

KARBALA, April 23, 2003 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Huge crowds of ecstatic Shiites surging through the holy city of Karbala on Wednesday, April 23, chanted slogans against a U.S.-imposed government in the second day of such protests coinciding with a major pilgrimage.

“No to an American government, no to Chalabi,” the Shiites shouted, referring to Ahmad Chalabi, the pro-U.S. leader of the Iraqi National Congress, who has returned to Iraq after decades of exile with eyes on power.

It would appear that our “enemies” have been plotting against us for some time. And, to this day, Chalabi sticks in the Shiites’ craw. His seat in the governing council is one of the seats allocated to the Shiite majority:

The composition of the Governing Council may reflect the Shia majority status for the first time ever in Iraq, but for some it does not reflect the representation. “There is an attempt to distort the truth about the Shia in order to deprive them of their rightful role,” says Sheikh Qais Al-Khazali, who runs an office for the Al-Sadr movement in Sadr City. “The Americans are not giving a chance to the true representatives of the Shia. Instead they bring people who claim to represent the Shia, like Ahmed Chalabi. He‘s a crook who‘s stolen from the bank in Jordan.”

Josh Marshall reminds us today that Ahmad’s nephew Salem is in charge of setting up the war crimes tribunal. And, Ahmad has another nephew, Ali ‘Alawi, who is the new Minister of Trade. And, then there’s Kamil Mubdir al-Kaylani, the Minister of Finance and Banking who’s a pal of Chalabi and was installed at his urging. No doubt there are more examples of Chalabi’s cronyism.

And the fact that the interloper Chalabi takes up one of the 13 Shi’a slots on the Governing Council is a real problem. Via Susan at Suburban Guerilla, I found this post from Riverbend, inside iraq, in which she points out that the marginalizing of Sadr seemed a little bit capricious, considering who else the CPR was willing to deal with:

[Sadr was]just as willing to ingratiate himself to Bremer as Al-Hakeem and Bahr Ul Iloom. The only difference is that he wasn’t given the opportunity, so now he’s a revolutionary. Apparently, someone didn’t give Bremer the memo about how when you pander to one extremist, you have to pander to them all. Hearing Abdul Aziz Al-Hakeem and Bahr Ul Iloom claim that Al-Sadr is a threat to security and stability brings about visions of the teapot and the kettle.

But, you see, we had to keep Ahmad happy and Ahmad is not well liked by the Sadr faction.

I don’t know what the hell to do about the mess we are in in Iraq. It’s truly beyond my ken. But, I can think of one thing that might make an immediate difference.

Get rid of that parasite Ahmad Chalabi and his band of cronies right this minute. Do it before it becomes a demand. Do it as a gesture of solidarity with all these ordinary Iraqis who see this opportunist for the scam artist he really is. It’s a first step.