See the City, See the Zoo
Mar 31st, 2008 at 6:09 pm by Chris
Whenever I’m in D.C. I’m always somewhat taken aback by the sheer number of eager, smarmy little twits in blazers who infest that city’s streets, eating establishments and Metro system. I always make the assumption, likely often wrong, that they’re specimens of the sort of young professional Republican who spends the early part of their career moving between various right wing think tanks and congressional Republican staff offices. Wingnut welfare and such. But whatever, nobody could have predicted that putting a bunch of these twits in charge of a recently conquered and highly unstable country in the Middle East would turn out badly.
One, the fighting in Basra and Baghdad is, on one level, about asserting the control of the central government. That is a good thing. But two, on another level, the fighting that took place last week was about ISCI trying to set the stage for this fall’s provincial elections. It wasn’t about the central government versus local authorities at all — it was about cold-blooded intra-Shia politics.
Do we have a dog in such a fight? Alas, we do. That dog’s name is ISCI. As the same friend mentioned above has noted, historians studying Iraq decades from now will wonder why the United States allied itself with the Iran-backed ISCI instead of the popularly-supported Sadr movement. (Hint to those historians: it’s because they dress well and speak English. This is what happens when you send smart but young Republican loyalists — who only speak English — to help run the CPA in Baghdad.) Once again, we have backed the loser.
On a related note, here’s a picture from Dan Senor’s wedding.
Via Snuzy.
Obama officially wins Texas…of course that FACT is nowhere to be seen on this site…
Wow Joe, you’re right. It must be my Obama hate getting the better of me. I’m just trying to keep you, me and our millionaire candidate down. Clearly, if I don’t type it here, nobody will know about it.
as mr hrc said recently…”just chill out”.
chris, are you in DC? i’ll be there tomorrow. can you give me a ride to DL?
yes, i’m serious.
nice to see the local vs expat thing make it back to the point of origin.
Damn, the Obama police have snared you again-
on a different note, love the photo of Senor and his enabler of a wife Campbell Brown, who as we all know is a completely independent news commentator-seriously, no reason for concern when she covers politics, none at all.
Sorry Snuzy, I won’t be gracing the capitol with my seven foot frame tomorrow.
Joe, I’m feeling pretty chill actually. If I had to pick anybody on this thread that didn’t seem chill, it would be the dude TYPING WORDS IN ALL CAPS…
Upper-case or lower-case aside (a rather juvenile comment, at best me thinks) doesn’t distract from the facts…