Quotable

Been a week of some great quotes. Some real zingers. I took the Deputy Governor out to lunch- he's the highest-ranking Sadrist in Baghdad and I've been trying real hard to get him to open up about his relationship to the Governor. Governor Tahan is Badr Corps and aligned with the SCIRI party; in fact he's still considered to hold the rank of general by the MOD in recognition of his services against Saddam. But if you've been here longer than twenty minutes you know one of the major fault lines in Shia politics is between the Badr crowd- generally those who took off to Iran to escape Saddam, and the Sadrists- those who stayed and suffered. The Sadrists stake a claim on more 'patriotic' ground and a loyalty to Iraq, and hold the Badr crew to be 'foriegners' due to their connection to Iran. Moqtada al-Sadr has a lot of notoriety as a 'firebrand cleric' and for leading the Mahdi militia against the US in 2004, but a large portion of Shia who consider themselves 'Sadrist' are in fact supporters of the legacy of Sadr's father, which taps into a deep reservoir of Shia suffering and vindication now that they are now in a position to govern. The Sadrists are a growing political force in Baghdad; if you see how Hamas gained credibility among Palestinians by providing welfare and social services while maintaining a militia wing, you can see shades of the Sadrist strategy in Iraq. The Deputy Governor's job is to manage essential services (sewer, water, trash) for the outying villages around Baghdad city. He has some techinical training, but its clear that he, like many of Iraq's current leaders, are outright novices in public administration. I offered him the chance to attend our weekly briefing by major contractors on services projects; the lunch was intended to get a feel for his politics. He was very judicious in his responses; I didn't press him to get too personal. So I decided to ask him about his opinions of the Provincial Council. I mentioned that his party only had a few seats, and that Da'wa had a few more, and the Governor's SCIRI party had the most seats. With a wry smile he looked at me and said, "Maybe not for long..." As the lunch went on I could tell he could understand a bit more English than he was letting on. I brought out some maps of infrastructure projects and the conversation loosened up considerably. There in one powerpoint slide were the locations and descriptions of multiple multi-million dollar projects currently funded by US taxpayer dollars. He looked genuinely impressed and asked very incisive questions about the longevity and specifications of the projects. I bluffed my way through most of it, I had brought along one of my Iraqi-American staff to help me with the technical information. We wrapped up lunch and I wanted to express my support for his office in facing the many challenges and problems in Baghdad; I said there were problems with crime and violence, there were problems with electricity and services, and there were problems involved in seating a new government. And without missing a beat he said, in perfect English: "Yes, that is the Mother of all problems."