Readers who have been with this blog since 2005 know that when Pundita gets really desperate for a clear summary of doings in a country she hunts around at the World Socialist Web Site. Trotsky's ghost hasn't gotten me yet, maybe because Pundita squirts a liberal application of demon repellent on the computer screen before her visit to WSWS.
It's very odd, but during a critical phase of events I've found the clearest picture of the political situation in Ukraine, Mexico, and Venezuela from a journalist publishing on WSWS. Of course Pundita had to cast out the Commie verbiage and the writer's interpretation of events. The remainder was remarkably informative.
The problem with following the daily news is that it's like studying a landscape from the window of a moving train. Now matter how clear the view, it's immediately replaced by another view. The upshot is a kind of blur of knowledge. One longs to get off the train for a few minutes and get to high vantage place; there one exchanges many clear details for a sweeping vista.
The other day Pundita found a WSWS analysis of the current political situation in Iraq. The analysis, written by James Cogan, contains little news for those who closely follow Iraq. But it's a great summary of how things stand now in Iraq. So it's a good review to read ahead of Ayad Allawi's interview with Wolf Blitzer tomorrow. (11:00 AM EDT on CNN.)
Two key points not mentioned in Cogan's report: Iraq's intelligence service has been run by the CIA because the Iraqis believe that otherwise the service will be taken over by Baathists loyal to Saddam. The other day the head of Iraq's intel told a reporter that a country which has 160,000 soldiers defending it can't be considered a sovereign nation. This by way of explaining that he wouldn't dissolve in tears if the US ousted Maliki.
Here's the report.
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