You have to dial Westchester County to call the new Iraqi president
As L. Paul Bremser, the latest viceroy for our new colony,
remarked, "We dominate the scene and we will continue to
impose our will on this country."
Although Mr. Bremser's name came up in an informal poll that
asked Iraqi citizens if they knew who their president was
(some also said President Bush), Ibrahim al-Jaafari is the
person holding the official title at the moment. The
presidency will rotate among the appointed members of the
council.
If you are savvy enough to have located this blog, you have
surely already seen this Onion article from a few months ago, but if you haven't, it is required reading.
http://www.theonion.com/onion3915/new_fox_reality_show.html
Also note that this story was published as truth in a
Spanish newspaper. (Second time this has happened with the
Onion; the other time was with a Chinese newspaper.) Even
funnier, the story did not even make the front page.
Apparently it is what people expect from the United States
and U.S. Americans.
Mr. al-Jaafari has not lived in Iraq since 1980. This does
not necessarily mean that he should not be president; the
reason he left Iraq was persecution of his party, al-Dawa,
by Saddam Hussein. However, wouldn't someone who had
actually been there for the suffering caused by both the
regime of Saddam Hussein and the sanctions regime of the
United Nations' be a better choice? In the end, though, who
would be a better choice is not a question we should be
answering at all, if our aim was really to establish a
democracy in Iraq. There should have been a vote.
Al-Jaafari doesn't actually have any power. Everything he
does is subject to a veto by the U.S. American occupiers.
No foreign government has yet recognized the new council as
a legitimate government.
Symbolic of all this, the area code of his cell phone is 914
- Westchester County in New York, an area of wealthy
suburbs.
Still working on learning more about his background. As
always, more later.
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