Rodents seeking alternate maritime transportation

In an earlier post, skdadl wrote about the Vanity Fair piece in which prominent neocons lined up to disassociate themselves from the disastrous results of the war they lobbied so hard for. And incidentally, Glenn Greenwald follows up on Michael Ledeen in particular with the blogging equivalent of a 2 x 4.

But there was one central figure missing in this discussion: our old friend Ahmad Chalabi. That's been remedied.

So, Ahmad Chalabi, what went wrong in Iraq in the war you helped to sell? “The Americans sold us out,” he tells longtime Baghdad reporter Dexter Filkins in a lengthy cover story in this coming Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, reviewed by E&P.

Chalabi was the Iraqi exile who worked -- via everyone from Paul Wolfowitz to Judith Miller -- to convince America to topple Saddam in 2003 (not that many in the administration needed much convincing).

Now, in an interview in his London home, Chalabi, betraying what Filkins calls “a touch of bitterness,” declares, “The real culprit in all this is Wolfowitz,” the former assistant secretary of defense, whom he still considers a friend. “They chickened out. The Pentagon guys chickened out…The Americans screwed it up.”

Chalabi's complaint, it turns out, is that the U.S. insisted on sticking around instead of simply toppling Saddam, handing the reins of power over to him and buggering off. As far as Ahmad is concerned, it's all about Ahmad. But anyone with two IQ points to rub together figured that one out a long time ago.

He adds: “America betrays its friends. It sets them up and betrays them. I’d rather be America’s enemy.”

Something tells me you may get your wish.

Hat-tip to War and Piece.