Christopher Albrighton… reporter in Iraq and writer of the excellent Back-To-Iraq blog has written a great piece revealing how “The Plot” is a part of every Iraqis’ daily discourse.
Rather than resort to Occam’s Razor—that the Americans have lost control of the political situation in Iraq, that political ideologues underestimated the difficulties of “democratizing†this place, that mistake has followed mistake—he called over his old friend, The Plot. Obviously, letting Iran take over the government is what the Americans want, he said. The Americans can close the border any time they want. That they don’t have enough troops to do so never occurred to him. Like a disappearing Cheshire Cat, The Plot was hanging in the air around us, only its toothy grin giving it away.
If you don’t already visit Chris’ site regularly, you should put it on the list. His insight into Iraqi society is really second-to-none, and his comments on a reporters role in the whole mess is equally as compelling.