indie cred

Mr. Brahimi has come out with his plan -- as far as I can tell, its central thrust is that it dumps the current governing council and starts over with a smaller one. Not a bad idea, but it would be tough to characterize this as progress rather than simply an admission of the current scheme's failure.

Of course the other positive attribute of the plan is that it comes with a UN pedigree. Sure, this is a good thing -- you'd have to think that running our Iraq policy through the filter of the UN will automatically moderate it to some degree and pave the way for other nations to share the burden of Iraq in years to come.

I doubt it makes much of a difference from the Iraqis' perspective, though. They know the US runs the UN most of the time and ignores it the rest. On the ground the only likely difference will be the introduction of those soothing powder-blue helmets. If the Iraqis were big UN fans, you'd think they would blow it up less. All right, so that's unfair. But those Iraqis who supported a UN presence originally are likely to be somewhat disillusioned by seeing its now months-absent humanitarian endeavors replaced or at least supplemented with a more martial operation.

Sistani's sitting on his hands and Sadr seems on the verge of capitulating, but does anyone really think that will be the end? What we've got is a populace driven to illegal acts by the immovable whims of an alien juggernaut motivated primarily by concerns unrelated to the welfare of those whose lives it most directly affects. That's right, it's exactly like the current state of the music industry. Analogy overextension begins... now!

For any potential winner, the situation involves two irreconcilable constituencies: the People and the Man. The Man has got the ability to make you successful if you can maintain the goodwill of the People. Without the Man, your odds of breaking big are considerably longer -- call WHFS and ask them to play some Fugazi if you don't believe me. The People hate the Man, though, and they're going to hate you for being associated with him. The The trick for any aspiring musician/fundamentalist cleric is knowing when to sell out. This is not easy to do. Chalabi seems to have badly miscalculated -- he's basically the Iraqi Lillix, and it's rapidly becoming apparent that he can't move product. Sadr and Sistani are playing the game better -- they could be the next REM, at this rate.

But here's where the analogy breaks down completely: a portion of your fanbase will always be alienated when you ally yourself with the powers that can make you a superstar. In the music world, those people are just record store clerks who sneer when suckers like me bring a copy of Monster up to the register. On the nation-building side of the metaphor, those people blow up the record store and head back to their parents' basement to start planning a bloody revolution.

I think we're doing what we have to do in Iraq, sure. But there aren't a lot of alternatives. Something must be done. I'm just afraid it'll be undone pretty quickly.