Chalabi: ‘Iran Benefited From Toppling Saddam’
Chalabi: ‘Iran Benefited From Toppling Saddam’
Via Tom Ricks, a very interesting Dar al-Hayat interview with Ahmad Chalabi, in which Chalabi shares his views of President Bush and the strategic consequences of the Iraq invasion for Iran:
[Al-Hayat]: If you want to describe George Bush, then how would you describe him?
[Chalabi]: A man with very little skill and knowledge.
[Al-Hayat]: He did Iran a great service by toppling Saddam?
[Chalabi]: Iran benefited from toppling Saddam. Bush didn’t mean to do it a favor but it was clear that Iran would benefit from Saddam’s fall. I am convinced that Saddam would not have fallen except for an implicit agreement between America and Iran.
[Al-Hayat]: This happened?
[Chalabi]: Yes, of course it did.
[Al-Hayat]: Through whom?
[Chalabi]: We worked on this and so did the Supreme Council and Jalal Talbani.
The idea that Iran has been the main beneficiary of the Iraq war isn’t particularly controversial any more — except, of course, among the war’s neoconservative advocates, who continue to insist that removing Iran’s greatest enemy and empowering Iraqi factions with longstanding close ties to Iran was a huge defeat for Iran. Incidentally, many of these people — Sen. John McCain and his adviser Randy Scheunemann among them — were also Chalabi’s biggest boosters.
Like Ricks, I’d be very interested to hear more about the “implicit agreement” that Chalabi asserts between the U.S. and Iran. Given what’s known now about Chalabi’s cooperation with Iran’s intelligence services, though, it’s pretty chilling to consider how close some of Chalabi’s marks came to taking the White House last November. Unfortunately, as shown by the continuing prominence of McCain, Bill Kristol, Robert Kagan and other neocon fantasists, inadvertently aiding America’s enemies is no barrier to influence in American foreign policy, as long as one is always careful to err on the side of war, and meticulous about dressing one’s belligerent strategic stupidity in patriotic drag.
19 Responses to “Chalabi: ‘Iran Benefited From Toppling Saddam’”
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Iran isn’t America’s enemy. Politics and rhetoric may have gotten in the way, but Iran is actually natural ally of the United States. Aiding Iran isn’t aiding America’s enemies. Iran would love to get along with the US and return the days of the Shah when Iran was the policeman of the Persian GUlf. The dymanics of Iran’s foriegn policy is essentially the same as the Shah’s. The problem is that Israel is acting as a spoilor because it sees an improvement in US Iran ties as a challenge to its own strategic value to the United States.
April 15th, 2009 at 4:03 pmFor someone who is not America’s enemy, they do seem to chant “Death to America” a lot…
April 15th, 2009 at 4:53 pmI hear a lot of Americans chanting death to Iran too, pal. But to these nuts represent ALL of America? Noooo ….
April 17th, 2009 at 3:28 pmLikewise with Iran.
i don’t think they chanted that between 1776 and 1953.
April 17th, 2009 at 3:50 pmI suppose the Iranians should have been grateful when Bush named them part of the “Axis of Evil”, eh?
April 17th, 2009 at 3:57 pmIran was the only ME country to hold public vigils for the US immediate following 9/11.
As far as the “death to America thing”, US rhetoric is no better and like us, they have their operatives and ability to roust a sentiment to their political advantage.
April 17th, 2009 at 4:03 pm@ M. Duss, what’s a “Death to America” or two between friends?
Really, if you took everyone’s stupid rhetoric seriously, the US would be France’s mortal enemy. And Glen Beck would be nuking New England on a nightly basis.
April 17th, 2009 at 4:35 pmDamn straight, M. In fact, I bet they’re all chanting “Death to America” right now! Because that’s just what Iranians do.
April 17th, 2009 at 4:38 pmFor someone who is not America’s enemy, they do seem to chant “Death to America” a lot…
Old habits die hard. I find myself sometimes getting into my old “Death to America” mantra before I remember that we won the election, making it now anti-American to love America. It’s really difficult to keep track of these things with a program.
April 17th, 2009 at 4:42 pmDamn, my last line was supposed to read without a program.
April 17th, 2009 at 4:43 pmWell, if we’re being honest, the “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran” didn’t really help the US cause.
April 17th, 2009 at 4:57 pmAnd it should be noted that Iran didn’t establish a secret police in the US, it was the other way around.
http://www.angelfire.com/home/iran/savak.html
There are around 71 million people in Iran more than any European nation but Germany. How many of them really sit around and chant “death to America”? We know next to nothing about Iran, our journalists can’t go there so we get our “facts” from shadowy ‘righs’ groups that feed news outlets “news” stories. It is quite apparent that Obama is planning a “Nixon in China” repprochement with Iran. Then all of sudden we’ll be friends again and our oil majors and auto companies (what’s left of them) and MNCs will get to exploit that huge market and give the Chinese some competition!
April 17th, 2009 at 5:21 pmFor someone who is not America’s enemy, they do seem to chant “Death to America” a lot.
Oh, everyone does that.
April 17th, 2009 at 6:10 pmM. Duss – What is your point? America says Iran is “evil”. Do you think that any enmity between the two countries is “natural” or “eternal”?
For someone who likes condemning “neocon fantasists” who “err on the side of war”, you sure don’t sound very different from them.
April 17th, 2009 at 6:55 pmYou must understand that ‘death to america’ is a poor translation. Something closer to the true meaning of the farsi would be ‘down with america’.
April 17th, 2009 at 9:02 pmAmusing how Chalabi says he played Bush and Cheney for chumps. I wonder how Bush feels about it? Assuming he’s sober enough to care…
April 17th, 2009 at 9:21 pmHass’ comment is one of the better ones I’ve seen. Incisive.
April 18th, 2009 at 10:42 amI’ve been to both Iran and Cuba and talked politics to people on the street of different socioeconomic groups in both places as well as friends and family (throuigh a sibling’s long standing marriage) of Iranian descent. All the media blather about widespread and wholesale hatred of the US from these two countries is preposterously and dangerously wrong. Lies, 98% of it.
April 18th, 2009 at 7:45 pmBelieve it at the peril of your own ignorance. we could become friends, allies, and trading partners of Iran in a heartbeat.
With Cuba, at bare minimum, serious trading partners and
mutually beneficial partners of various forms of technical and cultural exchange.
“M. Duss Says:
April 19th, 2009 at 11:14 amFor someone who is not America’s enemy, they do seem to chant “Death to America” a lot…”
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS4v_kj9rw4