Middle East Focus: Two Iraqi Phoenixes? Pro-Iranian Democrats, Ba’athist Democrats, Spreading the Bull…………

Arabia Deserta

Two Iraqi Phoenixes? Pro-Iranian Democrats, Ba’athist Democrats, Spreading the Bull…………

“News stories reporting Allawi’s come-from-behind narrow victory over the parties aligned with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki invariably describe him as "secular," which really only means godless. Reuters hails Allawi as the personification of "hope for secular Iraq," and yet the Ba’athist party was also secular, and "cross-sectarian," as reporter Paul McGeough puts it, and that doesn’t make him one of the good guys……. Allawi was a principal figure, second only to Chalabi, in the network of Iraqi exiles who did so much to lie us into war. It was his group, the Iraqi National Accord, that funneled "intelligence" which gave Tony Blair the idea Saddam could launch his "weapons of mass destruction" on 45 minutes notice. "His strongest virtue is that he’s a thug" says neocon (and ex-CIA analyst) Reuel Marc Gerecht, and Obama’s CIA apparently agrees. If Gerecht and his friends had had their way, Iraq would have been handed over to Chalabi long ago, but Allawi will do. This way both the neocons and the Obama-ites can claim the "credit" for yet another US "victory" – one that old King Pyrrhus would surely recognize…………”
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