Who's on first.........

In the past few days we have witnessed a bizarre struggle as it would appear that various forces are at work to select a new government of Iraq that will rule the country until elections occur. Watching this and seeing the events unfold, for instance of the struggle for who will be prime minister and president (The New York Times > Washington > Selecting a Leader: Surprising Choice for Premier of Iraq Reflects U.S. Influence), one has to wonder what is really going on.

Following these events, it seemed that some of the people that have been selected started to operate on their own, without US approval. As an example, the Iraqi Foreign Minister was flying to the UN apparently asking them to do something, or at least support something at that the US was not in favor of seeing happen(Yahoo! News - Iraqi Foreign Minister Off to UN, Seeks Sovereignty). The US responded to that by agreeing to some form of compromise in advance of the meeting. I have to wonder reading all of this is how much of it is real.

I mean this is, afterall, a group of people running the US administration who are trying to ban camera phones so that bad news cant get back to the US media; who won't let reporters circulate freely; who write to editors and ask them not to use information from unofficial sources. Is this really the kind of operation that would let the Iraqis run free and clear and do whatever they wanted? Hardly; it seems much more likely with the information control we have seen in other areas that what we are really seeing is a careful manipulation of the news to appease the Iraqi people. Not that I disagree with the goal of appeasing the Iraqi people. I don't think this will work, however.

The reason I don't thing this will work is that the people they're using for this circus are too well known. First there was Chalabi and even if he is no longer in the picture everyone in Iraq knows what he is, probably better than our own people and certainly better than the New York Times. Likewise when people who have had long associations with the CIA look like they suddenly become totally independent it is very hard for anyone to believe. Certainly the Iraqis are going to greet this with major skepticism. So is this really going to work? Well, who knows of course, but it seems that this is just another failed little circus that they're trying to push by, in this case the Iraqi people more than the American people. Although certainly it doesn't hurt if the American people buy it as well.

As there is growing concern about how long we will have stay in Iraq, the media's recurring portrayal of these events as the beginning of stable indepemdence for the Iraqi people as they begin to control their own government serves the US administration. If it were true that would be great. Although it wouldn't be so great if they became a Shi'ite fundamentals state. That is somewhat of a different story, however. For now, seeing that the Iraqis are taking charge and working together would be a step in the right direction. It's just hard to believe it is really happening.