MJ Rosenberg writes about Iranian-American Sohrab Ahmari, who seems to be vying for a spot as the new neo-con favorite à la Ahmed Chalabi.
Ahmari, the neocons’ favorite Iranian, is very much in the mold of the neocons’ favorite Iraqi. During the run-up to the 2003 invasion Ahmed Chalabi was their darling because, as an Iraqi émigré, he was thought to have unique credibility. Neocons loved hearing an Iraqi say that invading Iraq would not only prove successful but would be welcomed by his fellow Iraqis. Unfortunately, he turned out to be a fake, whose agenda was almost entirely personal. The war he and his friends promoted was an infamous catastrophe. And, to put it mildly, the invasion he told us that Iraqis would welcome was not welcomed.
The role Chalabi played in precipitating the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq is still under-appreciated, I think. He lied through his teeth to high-level neo-conservatives bent on regime change in Iraq like Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, and Douglas Feith. Since his nefarious involvement with Bush administration officials, he has gone on to continue his superlative corruption in Iraqi politics.
Ahmari seems hungry to fill the role Chalabi did, publicly advocating an all-out war on Iran with an air of entitlement given his Iranian derivation.
