OxBlog

# Posted 10:41 PM by Ariel David Adesnik

SPINNING RECONSTRUCTION: Today's WaPo has a front-page story on US reconstruction plans. Josh Marshall then complements the WaPo article with an excerpt from his unpublished work on INC chief Ahmed Chalabi.

In short, Marshall thinks of Chalabi in much the same way as he does Rumsfeld -- a reckless and naive gambler whose arrogance may well be the prelude to a catastrophic setback for American national security. Marshall notes that the Pentagon has largely sidelined Chalabi so far, but is worried that DoD's efforts to shut Foggy Bottom out of Iraq will lead it to promote Chalabi to a position he doesn't deserve.

While less persuaded by Marshall's take on Rumsfeld, I'm fairly certain that he is right about Chalabi. As I've said many times before, Chalabi and the INC seem to lack both a realistic sense of how to govern Iraq as well as an indigenous base of support. Moroever, Chalabi & Co. seem just a little to eager to get their hands on the reins of power.

But what about Jay Garner and the Pentagon brigade? I don't know much about Garner, but I take it as a good sign that The Guardian has utterly failed to come up with any dirt on him. Consider what follows:

...the choice [of Garner] looks to be yet another misjudgment from a Pentagon leadership that has misjudged rather a lot...

Among those who actually know him, no one seems to have a bad word for Jay Garner. Now 64, he retired six years ago as a three-star general, having made his reputation most spectacularly after the 1991 Gulf war when he was in charge of the Kurdish areas in the north, and won the confidence of the thousands of Kurds who had fled into the mountains to escape President Saddam's forces...

Gen Garner's firm does not make military hardware but specialises in the guidance systems. In other words, he is the man who has been trying to make sure the weapons hit the targets rather than the surrounding civilians. This may be true, but this might require an over-subtle explanation in the Baghdad souks if Iraqis start to believe they are being ruled by a man who was just trying to kill them...

"It sends completely the wrong signal," said Ibrahim Hooper of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"From the perspective of the Muslim and Arab world, it is inappropriate to have someone who has exhibited strong pro-Israel sentiments as the veritable ruler of Iraq. It will be seen as confirming the sense that it is not a war of lib eration but a war to promote the state of Israel."

To summarize: Garner has a proven record of winning the Iraqis' trust, has helped developed technologies that save Iraqi lives and openly supports the only established democracy in the Middle East. Oh, those fools at the Pentagon. Why didn't they just ask Dominique de Villepin to govern postwar Iraq?
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