June 3, 2004
FOOL ME ONCE, SHAME ON YOU--FOOL ME 42 TIMES, THE GUARDIAN:
How honest broker was defeated - and with him hopes of credibility (Jonathan Steele, June 3, 2004, The Guardian)
Whether Washington or its few Iraqi friends are the biggest winners in the line-up of figures who have emerged as Iraq's interim government, the clear loser is Lakhdar Brahimi, the veteran UN envoy.Barely six weeks ago, he seemed an all-powerful figure. He had persuaded the Americans to give him the right to select the new government, making it clear he would listen to a broad range of Iraqis. Because of the unpopularity of the US-appointed governing council, he indicated he would choose a group of technocrats to run Iraq until elections at the end of the year.
Although it was unlikely he would pick anyone totally unacceptable to Washington, he was not intending to give the Americans a veto. He also announced, with the support of the Americans, that the governing council would be abolished.
Yet now, after a week of public clashes over who would get the main jobs of president and prime minister, Mr Brahimi's choices have been overruled in humiliating circumstances.
This just in: President Bush didn't turn over any authority to the UN, just used them as cover.
If only he weren't an idiot he might achieve something these eight years, eh?
Posted by Orrin Judd at June 3, 2004 2:36 PMIt helps when the UN and its cronies have the delusional belief that the Iraqis like and respect the UN. If only President Bush were smarted, he'd be able to take advantage of that.
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at June 3, 2004 4:06 PMCompletely On-topic.... David Warren is back, bless his heart.
http://www.davidwarrenonline.com/Comment/Jun04/index216.shtml
"No one else will say this, so I will. The Bush administration has handled the transfer of power in Iraq more cleverly than anyone expected, including me. The summoning of the U.N. envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, looked like very bad news (a poisonous old Arab League chauvinist who brokered the sell-out of Lebanon to Syria in 1982). In grim moments, I believed the Bush people were cynically using him to wash their hands of Iraq, and as it were, dump the quagmire back in the swamp of the U.N. Instead, they froze the ground beneath Brahimi's feet, and skated rings around him, haggling behind his back with Iraq's new political heavyweights to leave him endorsing a fait accompli. If it were not vulgar, I would say the Bushies suckered the U.N. into signing on to the New Iraq through Brahimi. A sovereign, free Iraq which will, incidentally, have a few things to say about the U.N.'s $100-billion "oil-for-food" scam, in due course."
D.W.
They lost me when they refer to a Sunni pan Arabist as an honest broker for Iraq.
He was a figleaf for the Iraqis and the administration and probably knew it.
Posted by: JAB at June 3, 2004 6:18 PM>If only he weren't an idiot he might achieve
>something these eight years, eh?
Remember this drooling idiot is also the Evil Genius Mastermind of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. All at the same time.
Posted by: Ken at June 3, 2004 8:24 PMBrahimi honest? Sure. Whatever you say.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at June 3, 2004 8:41 PM