The US occupation forces

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

The US occupation force’s arrest of Muhammad Mohsen Zobeidi, the self-proclaimed “Mayor of Baghdad” is a very positive development. The most troubling thing in the last two weeks has not been the Shi’a demonstrations in the south but the palpable sense of drift in US efforts to create even some sort of de facto occupation government. Given our priorities in Iraq we don’t want to be feared exactly. But we must be respected. And Zobeidi’s unimpeded effort to set himself up as the political authority in Baghdad was threatening to accomplish the one thing we cannot allow: making our authority an object of ridicule. Zobeidi was providing almost as much comic relief as the much-missed Iraqi Information Minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf. Only this clown was on our dime, not Saddam’s.

Latest Editors' Blog
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: