Here he is, giving the bad news to al-Maliki and apparently repositioning himself as the acceptable face of the Sadrist movement (political version of; Moqtada has apparently been sipping tea in Damascus with Ayad Allawi, which is interesting). Looks like Sadrism is now a genuine political movement for sure (I seem to remember arguing the opposite with Alex once). Also, for an unpopular politician whose career is finished, Chalabi maintains quite a bit of relevance, doesn't he? I think what is going on here is that despite the war, being "seen as close to Iran" in Iraqi politics is a bit like "seen as close to the USA" in Canadian politics - ie, it's probably not really liked all that much, but if you were going to be implacably opposed to it, you'd rule out more or less your entire political class.
that's d-squared with a hyphen, dammit.
Like Brad Delong's site, but with more liberal use of the F-word and less about the New York Times.
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Ay oop, it's Selwyn Froggit Ahmad Chalabi!
Here he is, giving the bad news to al-Maliki and apparently repositioning himself as the acceptable face of the Sadrist movement (political version of; Moqtada has apparently been sipping tea in Damascus with Ayad Allawi, which is interesting). Looks like Sadrism is now a genuine political movement for sure (I seem to remember arguing the opposite with Alex once). Also, for an unpopular politician whose career is finished, Chalabi maintains quite a bit of relevance, doesn't he? I think what is going on here is that despite the war, being "seen as close to Iran" in Iraqi politics is a bit like "seen as close to the USA" in Canadian politics - ie, it's probably not really liked all that much, but if you were going to be implacably opposed to it, you'd rule out more or less your entire political class.
Here he is, giving the bad news to al-Maliki and apparently repositioning himself as the acceptable face of the Sadrist movement (political version of; Moqtada has apparently been sipping tea in Damascus with Ayad Allawi, which is interesting). Looks like Sadrism is now a genuine political movement for sure (I seem to remember arguing the opposite with Alex once). Also, for an unpopular politician whose career is finished, Chalabi maintains quite a bit of relevance, doesn't he? I think what is going on here is that despite the war, being "seen as close to Iran" in Iraqi politics is a bit like "seen as close to the USA" in Canadian politics - ie, it's probably not really liked all that much, but if you were going to be implacably opposed to it, you'd rule out more or less your entire political class.
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