Middle East Focus: A Kafkaesque Iraqi Political Process: a Saga in a Novella…………….

Arabia Deserta

A Kafkaesque Iraqi Political Process: a Saga in a Novella…………….

Spending time looking through Iraqi media can be entertaining, yet also extremely frustrating. This is what I have been reading lately as part of my rehab after the close of the FIFA World Cup matches. This has been going on since March:

An always smiling Joe Biden meets with an almost never-smiling Prime Minister al-Maliki for the nth time over the political process…..

Prime Minister al-Maliki meets with a never-smiling-these-days John McCain, plus sidekicks Lieberman and Graham over the political process………

McCain, plus Lieberman and Graham meet with an equally never-smiling V. P. Tareq al-Hashimi over the political process……

Al-Hashimi meets with the almost never-smiling al-Maliki over the political process………….

Prime Minister al-Maliki meets with always smiling Ammar al-Hakeem over the political process…….

Ammar al-Hakeem meets with the occasional smiler Adel Abdel-Mahdi over the political process………..

Adel Abdel-Mahdi meets with rarely-smiling Ibrahim al-Jaafari over the political process…….

Ibrahim al-Jaafari meets with always smiling Ammar al-Hakeem over the political process………..

al-Hakeem meets with the Iranian ambassador and General Odierno over the political process, but he feels he is being pulled apart by two horses, so……………

Ammar al-Hakeem meets with the amused Masoud Barzani over the political process…………….

Barzani deosn’t want to meet with grimacing President Talibani yet over the political process, so……

Masoud Barzani receives a sweaty Ayad Allawi over the political process……………..

Allawi meets with the not-sure-if-he-is-smiling Saudi King, who isn’t sure which Iraqi he is meeting with over the political process, so..…..

Ayad Allawi lands in Manama and meets with the ~~Emir~~ King of Bahrain over the political process………..

King of Bahrain meets with his own lingering prime minister over the political process……………

Lingering Bahraini prime minister meets with Munther al-Zaidi (plus his shoes) over the political process………

Munther al-Zaidi (sand shoes) meets with some thin-smiling al-Samarrai or another (with a thick dyed Ba’ath-style mustache) over the political process……..

The thin-smiling al-Samarrai or another (with a thick Ba’ath-style moustache) meets with weasely Salih a-Mutlak over the political process……………..

Salih al-Mutlak meets with his almost pal Rafi al-Issawi over the political process………..

Rafi Al-Issawi meets with the wife of the French ambassador over very sweet tea and the political process………..

The wife of the French ambassador meets her hair stylist over the political process……..

They all want to meet with Muqtada al-Sadr who is brooding in ~~Elba~~ Qom and does not want to meet with anyone until he finishes his Qualifying Exams and gets his graduate degree………….

That should make the political process in Iraq clear. After a few days, it gets to be almost like elevator music, you expect, and accept, it to go on even though it annoys you. It is enough, almost, to make me rescind my fatwa and allow Allawi to try and form a government. Almost.
Cheers
mhg

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