Ahmed Chalabi gave quite a lot of people hope that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein would be an unqualified victory for democracy and freedom. I was one of those people. American soldiers pulling down the statue of Saddam were as one with the crowds in the Soviet bloc who had pulled down statues of Stalin. Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive. Officials like Paul Bremer and General Garner did their best to govern the conquered country, no doubt, but they had the fatal flaw of being American, therefore easily depicted as occupiers rather than liberators. After D-day, the United States, actually the power in France, made sure that the French took responsibility for themselves. Ahmed Chalabi fitted the role of an Iraqi Charles de Gaulle. A secular Shi’ite, he came from a prominent family, had a Ph.D. from an American university, and knew his way round Washington. Extremely clever, he was most persuasive.
It still isn’t clear why American officialdom took so violently against him. The word spread that he was a liar deliberately misleading about Saddam’s weaponry, in effect war-mongering. Rumor further had it that he was involved in bank fraud, and far worse, that he was in the pocket of Iran. On the occasions when I met him, he was absolutely open about such contentions and had rational explanations. Washington’s lack of trust was and still is a feature of cultural divergence. Americans may not live up to the high moral standards they proclaim, but to judge Chalabi by these standards is to misunderstand. The world in which Chalabi had to operate necessitates betrayal, double-dealing, conspiracy, deception, bribery, and blackmail, with the ever-present risk of being murdered.
If really he was just one politician among others making his way in this living hell and useless as the Iraqi de Gaulle, I used to argue, then sack him and pick someone else. That was surely the purpose of building a huge embassy and maintaining a large garrison. But the politicians who took Chalabi’s place have proved blindingly limited, sectarian, and corrupt, truly in the hands of Iranian fanatics. President Obama obtained nothing in return for withdrawing the American garrison, and half of Iraq already belongs to Islamic State. A couple of days ago, Chalabi died of a heart attack, and it’s too late for anything except regrets.