Ahmed Chalabi’s Future as Left-Wing Icon
Ahmed Chalabi — you remember him — provides new vistas of meaning to the concept of audacity. Via Tom Ricks, here he is in an interview with al-Hayat accusing former President George W. Bush of being an Iranian agent.
“„[Al-Hayat]: If you want to describe George Bush, then how would you describe him?
“„[Chalabi]: A man with very little skill and knowledge.
“„[Al-Hayat]: He did Iran a great service by toppling Saddam?
“„[Chalabi]: Iran benefited from toppling Saddam. Bush didn’t mean to do it a favor but it was clear that Iran would benefit from Saddam’s fall. I am convinced that Saddam would not have fallen except for an implicit agreement between America and Iran.
“„[Al-Hayat]: This happened?
“„[Chalabi]: Yes, of course it did.”
Now as ever, Chalabi’s making stuff up and probably doesn’t believe this crap himself. It speaks to the caliber of Chalabi’s mind that he considers Bush to lack “skill and knowledge” and yet aver that Bush calculated to ruin Iraq for Iran’s benefit. But to take this seriously is to miss the point, which is that Chalabi wouldn’t say something like this unless there was an angle in it for him, and so I’ll view it as a sign that the left wing in this country is so freakishly powerful that Chalabi feels the need to feed it anti-Bush catnip. All’s forgiven, man.
