Michael Rubin, the next US consul in Najaf?

 "As both an American official in 2004 -- when I served as a political adviser in the coalition provisional government-- and an American visitor in 2010, I was welcomed in the Shrine of Imam Ali, Najaf's holiest. In January, I visited one grand ayatollah and the offices of two others. Each said he welcomed dialogue with Americans. Indeed, Adnan Zurfi, the elected governor of Najaf, spent his exile years in Dearborn, Mich.

Nevertheless, Shiites remain uncertain about American intentions. During a February 1991 campaign stop, President George H.W. Bush famously called on "the Iraqi people to take matters into their own hands and force Saddam Hussein, the dictator, to step aside." The Shiites listened and rose up, but Bush had second thoughts and remained aloof as Hussein's tanks and helicopter gunships crushed the revolt. Thousands of Shiites were cast into mass graves. Perception means more than reality. In every Shiite seminary, clergy and students asked specifically why they should ever again trust the United States after the 1991 abandonment. They accuse the White House, the State Department and the Defense Department of persistent bias."  Michael Rubin

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Rubin is among the most persistent believers in the glories of the coming re-birth of the Middle East.  He sees this re-birth as the aftermath of the invasion and occupation of Iraq which he and his neocon brethren did so much to bring about.  His faith in the benefits to be realized in social revolution is admirable even if mistaken.

Since he is so well connected in Najaf, he should be appointed the first US consul in the city.  Those who share his political faith should also be appointed to help him there in this mission.

As a gesture of trust and good will I suggest that the consulate in Najaf should be guarded by locally recruited Iraqis.  His ayatollah friend can help with the recruitment and vetting of local staff.  pl 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/26/AR2010082605573.html?sub=AR

Comments

[FB Ali]

Col Lang,

Excellent suggestion!

I would add to it the proposal that all the bright chaps who flocked to Bremer's side to remake Iraq be appointed consuls in all the appropriate cities, eg, Falluja, Ramadi, Karbala, Kirkuk, etc. And, since Iraq has been remade, local guards would do fine for all of them.

[confusedponderer]

A poetic proposal indeed.

Thinking of it, Paul Wolfowitz could be made US ambassador to the Hashemite King of Iraq.

[Fred]

Great idea. Let them pay thier own way, too. They've made enough off the rest of us.

[BughouseWW]

Rubin was a student in Iran at the end of the 1990s. His report of activities there is a bit confusing but gives a bit of insight into his attitudes. http://www.meforum.org/39/irans-dialogue-of-civilizations-a-first-hand

In general, Rubin impresses me as a pampered wuss with a sense of entitlement, and no other way to earn a decent living other than peddling neocon snake oil.

Theodor Herzl was concerned about the cadre of volk like Rubin that occupied the Jewish population in Europe a century earlier than Rubin: Herzl call them "our mediocre intellectuals," and conceded that the combination of so many otherwise unemployed "MIs" in combination with so many wealthy Jews made for an uncomfortable situation for Jews in Europe.

[Anna-Marina]

Modern Israel is stenciled from the former USSR. Exhibit one is Avigdor Lieberman who should have never, under any circumstances, become a minister of foreign affairs of any state. The tribal mentality could be suicidal not only for Israeli right but for the US Jewish community at large, which continues funding the barbaric settlements and is mum about AIPAC unholy influence on the US government. At the final analysis, it is a lack of courage that destroys this world.
Perhaps the Zionist dream has passed already the point of no return:
http://www.alternet.org/world/148016/?page=entire