Two close associates of the head of the Iraqi National Congress, Ahmad Chalabi, proclaimed themselves leaders of the interim local government in Baghdad today.
I'm going to be very cynical about this. Why? The headline quote above is from an academic who attended the "election". The information is in the story.
Zubeidi said he had been chosen "by the citizens" for the post of interim government leader of Baghdad and told reporters he had been "advised" by the US 101st Airborne Division after returning to Iraq in the wake of the military action after 30 years' exile.
But he was quickly interrupted by an academic, Kamal Saab, who said he objected to the INC officials' summary appointment, adding he "preferred Saddam Hussein to the people who proclaim themselves leaders without a real election".
Let's hope that this is a temporary condition. In Afghanistan, we installed Karzai, who previously worked as an oil contractor. Now we have Chalabi and his men, and, as I detailed in a post yesterday, Chalabi has been meeting and promising oil deals since before the war started. So we're not doing a great job of dispelling the rumors that this is only about oil. I'm upset we didn't come clean about the true reasons for this war, which increasingly seem to be those embodied in the Project For A New American Century.
