July 13, 2008, Bridge Over Troubled Water
Yes, yes... having at various times, gone for a series of Beatles titles, then the Stones, Dylan... could I resist going for S & G...? Apparently not, as we get this story, that of negotiations over a "bridge agreement" vis a vis continuation of American forces in Iraq past the deadline for the expiration of the UN mandate for our presence later this year, meaning that the President's imperial plans for permanently sticking the next Administration with a permanent colonial-maintenance force seem to have gone awry.
Such is the nature of golum monsters, in this case, the golum created by insisting that we were in Iraq because of WMDs Saddam's connection to al Qaeda the need to bring Iraqis democracy... which led to those wonderful (in the Lani Riefenstahl sense, of course, the only sense that matters to the Bush II Administration) moments of fat-cat Republican assholes waving purple stained fingers in the air. The thing is, that "democracy" also led to a class of Iraqi politicians whose continuation in power is now more dependent on forces (as it were) actually in Iraq as opposed to in imperial Washington. (Indeed, so assertive seems al-Maliki of late that he may even evict the Americans from the sacred Green Zone by the end of the year; admittedly, this may be more aspirational than real, as one is tempted to say, "oh yeah, al-Maliki... you and what army?").
One begins to wonder if the sort of developments there recently (like big oil deals) are the real action; otoh, how would we allow our precious bodily fluids oil companies to be at the mercy of a chaotic, mercurial Iraqi security apparatus, rather than the tried and true, if a bit shaky these days, mighty American military?
Stay tuned... our Iraqi colony may be asserting itself... or it might be playing according to a script. Time will tell... this has been... "Bridge Over Troubled Water." Now, I will lay me down.