Article

2004-05-28 Iraq-Jordan

Clever Clever Chrisopher Hitchens Defends Ahmad Chalabi

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Mike Sylwester 2004-05-28 2:33:48 AM|| || Front Page|| [11129 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Hitchens makes some excellent points. It nevertheless seems that a judgement was made that Chalabi simply wasnt a sufficient asset to offset the embarassment associated with him. Or maybe its just Beltway politics.

Note that Iyyad Allawi has just been nominated as PM. The war is finally over. The Pentagon has lost and Langley has won. Hail the victors. May they do a good job of leading Iraq to democracy and stability. May they at least recognize that democracy is the goal.

Posted by Liberalhawk 2004-05-28 9:21:48 AM|| 2004-05-28 9:21:48 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 Liberalhawk--For someone ignorant of what it means (me), could you explain briefly what "Pentagon has lost and Langley has won" means?

Thanks

Posted by jules 187 2004-05-28 12:25:01 PM|| 2004-05-28 12:25:01 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 Jules, I assume Liberalhawk was referring to a common perception that the Pentagon advocated a strong role for Chalabi in establishing the new government in Iraq, whereas the CIA opposed that idea.

Posted by Mike Sylwester 2004-05-28 4:18:45 PM|| 2004-05-28 4:18:45 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 The most recent thing I have seen on Chalabi (at NRO, I recall) was that we had broken the Iranians code for communications with their assets in Iraq, and Chalabi told Tehran that their code was no good anymore. I'm totally confused by the whole thing and have no idea whether Chalabi was a good guy, bad guy, or both. In the end Bush apparently told King Hussein he could "piss on Chalabi" for all Bush cared, funding got cut, a raid ensued, etc. For whatever reasons, Bush was convinced Chalabi wasn't worthy of further support.

Posted by Sludj 2004-05-28 5:06:44 PM|| 2004-05-28 5:06:44 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 Hitch is the man! The average IQ of America's Lefties went down by 21 points when he switched sides.

Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2004-05-28 10:01:52 PM|| 2004-05-28 10:01:52 PM|| Front Page Top

16:18 eLarson
16:18 eLarson
16:17 eLarson
16:17 eLarson
07:44 Outraged
07:01 Outraged
07:43 Outraged
07:43 Outraged
01:26 MrGrumpyDrawers
01:09 MrGrumpyDrawers
14:41 .com
14:38 Frank G
14:22 Mr. Davis
01:56 Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo)
01:39 Mike Sylwester
01:28 Mike Sylwester
00:55 Phil Fraering
00:13 Mr. Davis
00:10 Mark Espinola
00:09 Anonymous4617
23:57 Mark Espinola
23:15 Aris Katsaris
23:13 badanov
23:13 Anonymoose