Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall
The upshot of the piece is that Chalabi’s neocon supporters are beginning to realize that he is every bit the huckster and fraud that his most unyielding enemies at State and CIA said he was. He lured them in with all manner of improbable claims about the pain-free peace he’d make with Israel, how he’d upend Arab nationalism and generally make all the intractable conundrums of the region disappear.
In the popular political imagination we’re familiar with the neocons as conniving militarists, masters of intrigue and cabals, graspers for the oil supplies of the world, and all the rest. But here we have them in what I suspect is the truest light: as college kid rubes who head out for a weekend in Vegas, get scammed out of their money by a two-bit hustler on the first night and then get played for fools by a couple hookers who leave them naked and handcuffed to their hotel beds.
And just think, it’s on your dime and with your nation’s honor — what an added benefit.