The Ambassador’s Record Stripped Bare

Iraqis remember the image of Paul Bremer resembling a pane of glass, without shame or the slightest bit of warmth or conscience.

For Iraqis, Paul Bremer became camel’s urine, dragging the country back to a state of lawlessness and paving the way for the masking of the Iraqi political class!

Paul “The Camel” Bremer ended his work in Iraq and relinquished his duties to U.S. Ambassador Negroponte, whom our politicians also recall as one of our heroes!

Bremer gave the following remarks assessing the Iraqi politicians who served during the U.S. occupation, according to The Washington Post and other media sites, on Aug. 17, 2013:*

1. Never trust those who present you with their choices: Half of them are liars and the other half are thieves.

2. These people are insidious. They do not disclose what they want and hide behind misleading masks.

3. While trying to demonstrate their goodness, decency, devotion, simplicity and piety, they are in fact arrogant and immodest.

4. Beware their gentleness and open demeanor; they are wolves in sheep’s clothing. Do not hesitate to bite the bones of their mothers, fathers and homeland. Always remember that those people, those who scramble for their crumbs and those who claim that the world is theirs, are mercenaries loyal only to themselves.

5. They are skilled in the art of deceit and sly as foxes, yet we won’t deny that we encouraged them and thousands of their politicians.

Paul Bremer then continued his advice and remarks to the ambassador to help him learn to deal with “those people,” concluding:

“You will find them proficient in cruel and empty speech, rendering the listener confused. They speak this way with every nationality and culture and are unable to be direct even among their closest companions. With their empty intellects and political ineptitude, you will not find any among them who has a clear or acceptable solution to the problem; they continually place their partisanship and temperament ahead of all considerations of the national good. Knowing full well that they are isolated and receive no consideration from their own people because their citizens who took power during the interim transitional government have demonstrated that they are little more than expendable material.”*

One is sure to find a similar quote by Bremer in the new memoir on the war in Iraq.

This raises the question to Iraqis: Do we now have a different image of Paul Bremer? Or do we have what seems to be an even more apt appearance of a camel?

The judgment is left up to the people who will vote in five months during the election.

*Editor’s Note: These remarks could not be verified.