Arrows of the Night — Richard Bonin
Ahmad Chalabi with his family after being exiled from Iraq by the Saddam’s regime lived in Lebanon. He wanted to bring back his family’s honour and for that he destroyed Iraq beyond measures. He was playing a double sword by supporting both Iran and United States of America just so that he could go back to his country and be part of the elitist government.
Iraq’s army was responsible for perpetuating Sunni dominance over Iraq’s majority Shiites since many decades. The army played a major role in deciding to keep anyone in power and Saddam controlled it through his hegemony, wealth and terror.
Chalabi’s life pattern followed three steps: attaining power, provoking controversy and then turning adversity into advantage. He did the very same when he made USA officials believe that only he could take Saddam down; CIA started funding his initiatives and helped him launch his party INC in Iraq. Through that party Chalabi created an illusion that the USA was supporting his coup hence brought Turkey and Iran on board. On the other hand, he was spending CIA’s money on building his private militia which he was using against Saddam in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
USA always supported Iraq by providing them with battlefield intelligence and economic aid in order to keep Iran in check be that in the Iraq-Iran War or when Saddam invaded Kuwait. America’s only concern for Iraq were the WMDs which through multiple reports and inspections confirmed that Saddam was not dealing in them. Despite that many sanctions were imposed on Iraq. Clinton’s policy was to contain Saddam but not to engage him on the battlefield.
Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, which was confirmed by CIA and the State Department repeatedly, despite that USA decided to invade Iraq due to Chalabi’s strong lobby. Chalabi was in touch with the President and Vice President’s friends in the Oil Industry promising executives of both Chevron Texaco and Exxon Mobil preferential treatment in a post-Saddam Iraq if they lobbied on his behalf at the White House, which they did.
Chalabi was strictly out for himself playing both sides in pursuit of his own self interests and his desire to lead Iraq. Chalabi was by no means the only impetus of war but he stroked the desire, raised the stakes by supplying defectors who bore false witness to Saddam’s nonexistent ties to al-Qaeda and WMD.
Chalabi became one of the four DPMs and was also named Chairman of two powerful committees but for Chalabi this role was the consolation prize, as he wanted to be the President of Iraq. In a 2004 poll, Chalabi was ranked as the nation’s least trusted public figure lower than even Saddam. Chalabi lured the world’s last standing super power, USA, into invading Iraq in a war of choice so that he could go home.
For USA it was one of the biggest foreign policy disasters in a generation, an ill planned poorly executed preemptive war which led to chaos for Iraqis who are still suffering the adversaries of the war.
