Humorously, if it weren't idiotically harmful: the Arab press reported that Bald Samson had yelled at the Iraqi politicans when he discussed their failure to pass the oil law. Soon after he departed Iraq ("it's good to be in Iraq," he had said when he first got there), Maliki, feeling worthless as an asset, dispatched an unwilling army against the Mahdi men in Basra. It turns out, according to various media sources, that one target of the attack was the union of oil and dock workers. This union is dead set against the privatization of Iraq's oil industry.
"Damn it, Maliki. F---ing break that union's back. Send in the troops. What the hell are we training them for? I have to show the oil companies some f---ing gains! Trillions of f---ing dollars spent on f---ing nothing."
Don't you love it? It turns out that sectarianism and militias are a union's best defense. Whoever said that the invasion of Iraq is not a success?
Love that, too: what saved the harmful idiots' ancillary Iraqi troops' ass from a rout by Mahdi, the union, and their allies is....Oh, come' on, you know it. Yes, what saved the harmful idiots' ancillary troops' ass was no other than the Iranian Quds Force Commander Qassem Suleiman. He mediated among the de facto powers on the ground in Basra: the Badr Organization's chief, Hadi al-Amri, Abdel's Aziz Hakim's assistant, and representatives of Moqtada as-Sadr.
Fiction: Maliki I hear has checked in with a culturally-attuned psychologist, or one of those anthropologists our clear-the-desert-build-a-wall-and-hold-on-to-the rocks (counter-insurgency! Ha!) Defense Department is now using in Iraq. "I feel empty, doctor. I'm overwhelmed by a feeling of utter insignificance. Worse, If I don't follow Bald Samson's orders, he'll get me lynched; if I contravene Iran's, I'll be dragged alive behind a Mahdi Army car (tas7eel.) Isn't it time for San Diego, doctor?"
Oh, it's so good to be in Iraq. Or San Diego.
Enjoy.
The best treatment I've read lately about Iraq is in Arabic. I found it in a supplement to the Lebanese newspaper, www.al-Akhbar.com. The supplement is titled, "The Militias' Republic: Five Years Into the Invasion of Iraq." (Arabic.)
Poster Comment:
Bald Samson = Cheney, if you didn't guess.
San Diego - Iraqis are moving en masse from Dearborn to SanDiego! .
Couple of points to consider - Maliki initiated his offensive in order to preempt an upcoming American foray into Basra, hinted at by Hillary in the hearings. .
Also, total privatization of Iraqi oil resources, in the model of the AngloPersian Oil cartel, as opposed to the Saudi Aramco model, delivering the oil into the hands of Exxon and Chevron is totally opposed by the Oil Workers Union, dominant in Basra, and employing militias to protect it's interests.. .
Also recommended - Tony's piece of April 8, a far more detailed exposition and analysis of recent events. .
Combined with the recent Stratfor Friedman piece posted by ADA, I get the funny feeling that all contemporaneous political rhetoric may well be rendered obsolete by events to come. .
"Events, my dear fellow, events" - some British luminary when asked about what he feared in a sticky wicket somewhere in the Empire.