Iraqi Poster Wars: Something Of A Windsock

Chalabi-Little-1 Chalabi-Little-2

Once a player, always a player.

I thought it was telling that this Chalabi campaign poster could be paired with a street vendor one minute, and then with Iraqi troops the next. It just shows how fast, and arbitrarily, this artful dodger — who just came untangled from from the United Iraqi Alliance — can realign himself.

More than anything, I like this description of the Jordanian fugitive from my friend Salam Adil:

Chalabi is especially seen as something of a windsock. If you want to know who is winning in Iraq just look to the place the wind has blown Chalabi. His friendliness with Iran is telling. It is possible Chalabi jumped before he was pushed out by the UIA. They have made their own contacts now and do not need him any more.

Having most recently served in the ruling cabinet as deputy prime minister, it seems Chalabi has shape shifted once again. He told al-Jazeera that he left the Shi’ite slate, backed by Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani, because they were overly Islamist. After the slate hooked up with Muqtada al-Sadr with the offer of 30 seats, however, it seems more likely Chalabi couldn’t accept that he was offered only three.

By the way, the slogan of Chalabi’s cobbled-together National Congress Party list is pretty classic too: "We liberated Iraq and we will build it together." Love that "we."

(image 1& 2: Hadi Mizban/A.P. December 1, 2005. Baghdad, Iraq. Via YahooNews)

Series: Iraqi Parliamentary Elections. December 15, 2005

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Iraqi Poster Wars: No Longer Just A Metaphor

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PTate in MN

Chalabi gives me the creeps: There is nothing about that man that I trust. His eyes are predatory, like a hawk. The shape of his head, his hair, his face, are too smooth and fat. All that is missing from his photo is the scent of perfume.
PTate in MN

…Which actually is rather interesting, given the pictures. Here the photos of this deceitful man (this man for whom the word “smarmy” was coined) communicates the big lie, the unreality of the Iraqi war. Iraqi daily life and the war go on, but the Chalabi is detached, frozen in time, insinuating, seeking power.
ummabdulla

I can’t look at a picture of him without thinking of W.C. Fields.
jt from B.C.

ummabdulla, not being familiar with W.C. Fields I checked the wiki source, although he does not remind me of Chalabi I found this tidbit of information which reflected precisely my knowledge of Chalabi’s past, present and probable future behaviour.
“Fields spent his final weeks in a hospital, where a friend stopped by for a visit and caught Fields reading the Bible. He enquired as to why, since Fields was an atheist, to which Fields replied, “I’m checking for loopholes.”
ummabdulla

LOL, jt. So there is a resemblance…
http://iraqivote.blogspot.com Vahal Abdulrahman

Excellent reporting.