To the Brothers Three, keep safe in these trying times!
One of the key points Mohammed Fadhil points out is Mookie’s self-recognition as a ‘great player’. He has always been the one to boast greatly and that he would be the power to deal with… and when he was first cornered and his organization threatened he whined and sued for peace to save his skin. That got him entree to the political process where, again, he leveraged what little position he had to try and make things worse and make himself be seen as powerful.
He got a disproportionate number of positions for his party, and that was not enough for him so he turned on the insurgency again to break his word. He knows that men of power do not keep their word to lessers. He played that game pretty well, inciting violence and having ‘private talks’ with Sistani which, I suspect, where more Sistani calling him on the carpet to get upbraided than ‘talks’.
The violence business started to go south, however, as Mookie realized that he was not even the ‘big player’ from Iran’s perspective. He was more than willing to use funds from them and build his terror organization, but only so long as he was the ‘big man’. He upped the violence and when AQI did that in Anbar… a funny thing happened. Anbar coalesced after years of work by the MNF and some Iraqi politicians, and AQI started to feel the heat.
Mookie ran from *that* as it showed that the top organization in terms of leadership, outlook and organization was *losing*. He scampered off to Iran, obviously trying to point out that *he* was more important than AQI. He had power! And that power was minimal, limited to withdrawing support from the Government, which he did as he returned.
That did not cause the Government to fall. Even worse is the campaign to pull down insurgents was now getting to *his* organization, and the admitted view by those opposing him that he *was* and *is* secondary.
Now AQI is being *removed* and the hard work to get reliable governance in after they are taken out is being done from tribes and the Awakening movement. But Mookie cannot be ‘Awakened’… he dreams of power. Wants power. He will turn in anyone to save his skin. But that Awakening is coming, and the sunlight of that now reaches into the crypts that hold AQI… and Mookie. Now Mookie must face the fact that it was his FATHER that was respected and he has lived off the leavings of his father’s name. And has dishonored that name by his actions.
Living a lie is difficult for Mookie. He will blame anyone else, sell out anyone else, for his own false claim to fame. And like all these denizens of the crypt of totalitarian power he is amenable to the dawn… and a bit of lead poisoning administered at very high speed. Mookie can run… but he can no longer hide. Keep on talking, Mookie… its the best way to *find you*.
