June 13, 2003

Dateline Baghdad --

Can't believe I'm still here. The Palestine Hotel never ceases to become a less comfortable place to live. Power's still spotty, the water supply is wildly unpredictable, and I'm profoundly sick of the menu at the Cafe. Jay Garner told me personally I'd be headed back to Madrid on the "first plane out", then took a powder himself. The new guy, Bremer, won't even return my calls.

I hear rumors that back in the States they think the war is over. What a joke. There are gun battles here every day, with fatalities on both sides. Outside of Baghdad, it's even worse. If you walk the halls of The Palestine, you can hear military officers and civilian advisors discussing troop movements, battle plans, and requests for reinforcements. Nobody is talking about leaving any time soon.

You don't hear much talk of an autonomous Iraqi government, either. People around here use the word "supervise" a lot. "The emergence of a democratic Iraq must be tightly supervised." "The close supervision of the transitioning of authority to an evolving Iraqi government is vital to ensure the security of our interests on the ground." "We will supervise the day-to-day logistics of the reconstruction process in order to more efficiently upgrade the Iraqi infrastructure to current high-productivity standards."

Iraqis I've spoken with are dismayed by all this supervision. It's becoming clear that the departure of Saddam Hussein is not going to enlarge their ability to determine their own future. Very few want Saddam back, but no one wants the Americans here, either. Bremer and his team of meat-eaters leave little doubt in anyone's mind that the course of Iraqi history is going to progress along a carefully laid out path which has little to do with the interests of the Iraqis themselves. There's a general feeling that whoever ends up running this country will owe more loyalty to Washington than Baghdad.

Speaking of which, I had a drink in the lobby with Ahmed Chalabi last week. As head of the "Iraqi National Congress", Chalabi currently looks like the favorite to occupy the figurehead role. He's a bit of a rogue, a man with a price on his head, so to speak, as a result of his conviction in absentia on charges of embezzlement in Jordan. More at home in London than Baghdad, he was drawn here by the lure of power, plus assurances that the CIA could make his legal problems go away.

Chalabi, surprisingly, is a witty and imaginative fellow. Turns out he's the author of the stories about Saddam's "imminent threat" to the United States. It seems that a few years ago, he was flogging some badly-forged documents around to every intelligence agency that would give him the time of day. Actually, it was all a gag. Chalabi had a longstanding grudge against Saddam, and was looking for payback. He was as surprised as anyone that the US took him seriously.

Chalabi knows how to play the media, too. He makes enough anti-US noise to sound independent, but makes it clear that he is a reasonable man, willing to make a deal. He must bring tears of joy to Karl Rove's piggy little eyes. Regime change is so much easier when all the actors stick to the script. Chalabi knows the script by heart. His friends in Washington must be very proud.

Speaking for myself, I found that Chalabi, like so many ambitious men, flatly declines to pick up a check.

Best Regards,

Newton