As far as I could tell Challabi really did think he was gonna get the "big chair" although I'm not sure if that would be a political "big chair" or simply control over, say, the Oil Ministry (which I think he had at some point).

Personally all of this bother about borders and who's helping who is pretty silly in a region whose borders were imposed on them so recently (Juan Cole's international blog/board has a nicely done refresher pointing out that reestablishment of the caliphate is not nearly a "quaint" a notion as it often appears it the west). All of the clan and kinship links extend over the borders and in these type of countries the comings and goings of "little people" aren't of much interest to anyone. When armoured vehicles, tanks, and heavy weaponry are being brought in, or helicopters, let's talk, y'know? We still have our satellites ... so, y'know?

What I really don't understand is our demonization of Muqtada al-Sadr (who's been out of the news again recently, i think) ... he's an Iraqi nationalist who wants to avoid Iranian domination and the Iranian "model" of church+state ... One could argue that his survival is "fishy" ... but tht murder he was accused of was of another iman who was being used as a CIA operative, so I'm doubtful...

But yes, Iran probably benefited most -- even though that was not "our" intention -- and high oil prices have really shifted the international landscape, particularly Putin's Russia.

To get back to topic -- there's just so much that's not reported that's "fundamental" ... like, that with the loss of the Saudi bases, we "need" a substitute and no one wants us ... at least not for very long... so, if you accept the need for forward bases, the need to stay in Iraq is not negotiable, and Clinton's plan makes "sense" -- if you believe. Our shenanigans wrt Pakistan are at least as bad.

thanks again.

as far as I can tell ... Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Iran have all moved in to a "more repressive" defensive posture in response to wannabes and nascient insurgent elements ... the ultimate blowback from that remains to be known.

We feigned interest in "arabs" after 09/11 -- remember being shocked to find just how much anti-american sentiment there was in Kuwait back in around 2002 or 2003 on 60 minutes? Remember being surprised at how virulent the anti-American sentiment was that was being sold in the mosques of Germany and England was? Remember the collection baskets that included Chechnya and Afghanistan as due a portion of the tithe, along with the Palestinians?

I have been anxiously waiting for Gilles Kepel's next book (not on the horizon) for a year or two ... In the meantime, as far as I can tell, our actions have helped fuel a radicalization which has been "effectively" suppressed, an effectiveness we don't want to acknowledge, carried out by our "allies" on their own people.

like they say, "Stay tuned" ... too bad we have such a lazy, cowardly press and such a lazy, oblivious-and-plan-to-stay-that-way population.

It seems to me that increasing the repression and extinguishing hope of incremental gradual reforms will have consequences.

It appears that many countries who initially denounced terrorism (who wouldn't, after all?) have realized that being "cooperative" in the WOT was to be seen as "complicit" if not collaborationist ...

Carter was very ambitious in the scope of his story and he pulled it off.

Too many "tried and true" writers these days not only are LAZY LAZY LAZY but they also leave gaping holes ...

I admit to not being a big fiction reader (too much nonfiction to slog through), much less mystery reader/fan, but the reviews impressed me enough to snap up a second hand copy and give it a try. I liked that it had depth without being arcane. I liked that it involved generations and neighborhoods without becoming "sociological" and that we were spared, god help us all, "academia."

"Ocean Park" was not a fast-paced "barn burner" and at times I suspected the plot had been carefully laid out in "project manager" software but I was grateful for a story that was interesting, that did moved and had a quite a cast, and did not to have those icky two-days-later moments of intense annoyance realising that ... well, you know ...