Over the weekend I planned on writing a half-assed, half-baked, half-correct roundup of the Shiite clerics emerging to fill Iraq's power vacuum, but the Daily Telegraph did it on Sunday, in a piece that's required reading on the question of "Who will rule Iraq?"
It's becoming obvious that just about anyone associated with Chalabi's INC is more effective at attracting a hail of gunfire than popular support, and at least some Iraqis don't seem too hot on American-backed clerics, preferring instead to hack them to pieces.
And what's America's tolerance for Iraq turning into an Islamic state based on sharia law, one that forbids television, dominoes, and women wearing makeup? Sorry, dumb question.
Given the unpleasant prospect of Iraq becoming Iran Lite, is it conceivable that the U.S. turn to a "reformed" group of Ba'athists -- some of whom have apparently regained control in Baghdad -- to make the oil pump on time?
posted by dackWouldn't that be a funny joke, to put the Baath party back in power. I guess when we said that we wanted regime change we carefully defined the regime as one man. The debate over whether Iraq will end up looking like Yugoslavia or Iran misses another option: It may look much like it used to, with 2 exceptions: 1)US military bases and 2) oil going to the US.
Posted by: ted on April 21, 2003 11:05 AMforbids television
Damn, they can't watch Fox news!
forbids dominoes
There goes the domino theory!