Posted on 12/11/2005 11:27:29 PM PST by jmc1969
The priests have long since departed, but the elite Jesuit high school called Baghdad College still looms over the swirling world of Iraqi politics.
The three Iraqi political leaders considered most likely to end up as prime minister after nationwide elections this week - Ayad Allawi, Ahmad Chalabi and Adelabdul Mahdi - were schoolmates at the all-boys English-language school in the late 1950's, fortunate members of the Baghdad elite that governed Iraq until successive waves of revolution and terror swept it away.
The boys of Baghdad College, now men in their 60's back from exile, are ready to assume their place on top of the social hierarchy that they and their families once assumed would be theirs forever.
The three men are now flag bearers for three very different visions of Iraq's future: Allawi for a secular state, Mahdi for an Islamic-style democracy, and Chalabi for a program that would purge Iraqi society of those associated with Hussein's rule.
"Ahmad was a year ahead of me, and we used to go swimming together," Allawi said. "Adel and I were friends, our families knew each other. He was a good basketball player."
Allawi said he and Chalabi used to swim after school at an exclusive social club. And he described how he and Mahdi had become politicized at Baghdad College, first with the fevers of Arab nationalism and then with the early stirrings of the Baath Party.
As for politics, Allawi, Chalabi and Mahdi say that while the furies engulfing their country are serious, the best hope for containing them may lie in three old schoolmates sitting down together.
"When you have known each other that long," Chalabi said, "It takes the edge off the tension."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Were they in Skull and Bones at Yale, too? If this isn't a cheap shot at the new Iraqi government, I don't know what is.
What is an Islamic style democracy?
That's what we're going to be finding out in the years to come.
Islamic style democracy is what happens if the UIA wins in that it means moronic clerics rule Iraq and split the country apart and cause a civil war.
Did you get that definition off the DNC website?
No, I got that defination off of what I see from the Middle East when Islamic cerics get involved with government.
Sadr gets 1/3rd of all seats the UIA pulls this election. That will make Sadr and Hakim incredibly powerful if the UIA does well. And, these two are damn morons.
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