Real Experts

You can listen to Marc Lynch, Colin Kahl, and Rand Beers talk about the latest developments from Iraq if you're tired of just reading some blogger guy mouth off. They very effectively put these events into the larger context of events in Iraqi politics that went undernoticed until Maliki's statements exploded onto the campaign scene.

Comments

Overheard online:

Obama is playing Reagan to McCain's Carter by in effect negotiating for the release of the 150,000 Americans currently being held hostage in Iraq.
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Posted by Grand Moff Texan | July 21, 2008 4:04 PM

OK, now that I've read it, I didn't find what I thought you meant about "the larger context of events in Iraqi politics that went undernoticed until Maliki's statements exploded onto the campaign scene," which I thought was the return of Sunni ministers to Parliament.

I did, however, find Lanny Davis' article on FOX about how he realized that he and the Democrats were wrong when he saw his first purple finger, or something.

So, Lanny Davis' new gig is to help freepers feel better in a world that is rejecting them by helping them remember the feel-good photo-ops they kinda remember from a dozen or so small, medium, and large disasters ago.

Whores provide their johns with a useful service: temporary distraction.
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Posted by Grand Moff Texan | July 21, 2008 4:10 PM

Ingrates! (say Bush and McCain)

Posted by maria | July 21, 2008 4:10 PM

Matt:

You didn't tell us your book got reviewed in NYRB by Samantha Power. Not bad.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21670

Posted by blah | July 21, 2008 4:21 PM

... I didn't find what I thought you meant about "the larger context of events in Iraqi politics that went undernoticed until Maliki's statements exploded onto the campaign scene."

I haven't listened to the audio, but for anyone who cares, here's the context (posted in a comment at the link as well):

The PNAC gameplan for invading Iraq long before 9/11 was to establish long-term bases for projecting U.S. power across the Middle East, and whatever government we handed power off to was supposed to endorse such bases. Unfortunately for the PNAC crowd, though, Ayatollah Sistani hijacked the process in 2003-04 and installed a government that was loyal to him rather than Bush/Cheney.

As a result, an intense tug-of-war has been going on behind the scenes for the past few years between the U.S. and Iraqi governments, despite the public pretense of agreement by both sides. First Jaafari & Co., and then Maliki & Co. would feign their support of political reconciliation, bringing Sunnis into the security forces, an oil law, etc.... then stall until each proposal died quietly.

With the joint expiration of the UN mandate and Bush's term of office, though, there's no more room for pretending -- the Iraqis have to either formally accept being a colony or reject it. And as I wrote elsewhere yesterday, Sistani didn't go through the trouble of forcing elections just to be known as the grand ayatollah who rubber-stamped a permanent U.S. occupation.

Anyone who finds the current situation surprising hasn't been paying enough attention to the behind-the-scenes struggle I mentioned.

Posted by Swopa | July 21, 2008 5:45 PM

how can someone who supported the Iraq war be considered a foreign policy expert?

only in america

Posted by SydB | July 21, 2008 9:11 PM

Matthew writes,

They very effectively put these events into the larger context of events in Iraqi politics that went undernoticed until Maliki's statements exploded onto the campaign scene.

This is becoming a parody of a parody. I hope you managed to keep a straight face as you were typing "exploded."

Posted by Mixner | July 21, 2008 9:24 PM

I wonder if historians, looking at this period, will find that the turning point on Iraq was the Iraqi government's realization that the U.S. was actually planning to let Israel use Iraqi airspace to bomb Iran. At some point this spring, perhaps, Maliki and crew decided that the Bush people were really that crazy, and wanted no part of it. Especially as they are allied to Iran, and indeed, an outgrowth of a Khomeinist faction in Iran.

Maybe it was the bizarre military exercise by Israel two weeks ago, meant to warn Iran. It definitely warned Iraq. The coming of Shiite power is going to skew a lot of the old verities in the Middle East. Interesting times ahead.

Posted by roger | July 21, 2008 10:08 PM