'Just World News' with Helena Cobban

Lieutenant Nick's view of Chalabi in Baghdad

A lieutenant in the US occupation force in Iraq left a very interesting comment on the Warblogging.com blog yesterday, giving his view of how Chalabi is regarded by Iraqis and others in Baghdad. (This view accords exactly with that expressed on numerous occasions by Riverbend of the Baghdad is Burning blog.)

Here's Nick's comment:

last time i wrote--months ago--i was getting ready to deploy. been in baghdad since april...

for what it's worth, virtually every ordinary just-trying-to-live-their-lives iraqi i've met talks smack about mr chalabi. ("thief! as bad as saddam! who is he to tell us what to do, when he ran away for thirty years!")

i myself have had the thrill of dealing with his employees a number of times, since one of the things i do is to run checkpoints near the new iraqi government center. chalabi's goons--i can't think of a better word for the caravan of bodyguards which follow him around--are constantly rude not just to my soldiers (which i can almost understand) but to their iraqi neighbors as well. chalabi's men expect--sorry, DEMAND--access to restricted areas so they can avoid the traffic they'd run into by driving around, and throw temper tantrums when i let ordinary iraqi citizens into 'our' neighborhood before them. my favorite exchange so far:

CHALABI THUG (in arabic, directed at my translator): can you not explain to the americans that we are special people? we don't have to wait in line like the rest of you.

TRANSLATOR: (in arabic) that's the way things used to be under saddam. now, we are all equal.

CHALABI THUG: (in arabic) we are not equal! we are special!

ME (in english to my translator): please tell him to calm down and wait his turn.

TRANSLATOR: (in arabic) the lieutenant says you need to wait. please wait.

CHALABI THUG: (arabic) you are iraqi! why do you listen to the americans?

ME: (in arabic) if you don't want to wait in line, that's fine with me. go away. now.