There is a whispered line within the corners of American history, which was delivered inside a parking garage to The Washington Post journalist duo Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein from Deep Throat, Deputy FBI Director Mark Felt:

It was more than investigative advice. It was a revelation. It was a roadmap to power, to corruption, and to the foul core of political institutions that clothe themselves in flags while feeding on rot.

If there is any advice that the new United States Special Envoy to Iraq, Mark Savaya, must hold onto if he is to survive this theatre of illusions that is Baghdad, it is: look at who is making the money.

Savaya is a 1985-born diplomat bred neither by conflict nor hardened by the cold mathematics of Middle Eastern might. He is an award for politics. A reward for campaign loyalty. A man who is sent into a den of wolves armed with a smile, an outstretched hand, and an insubstantial defence of shallow experience. His mandate? To dismantle the Popular Mobilisation Forces, to sever the steel cord of allegiance linking Baghdad to Tehran, to wrest Iraq back into the sunlight out of Iran’s darkness.

He walks into a maze of deceit where the walls of truth lie, the floor of honesty deceives, and each door is a trap. The leaders he will deal with have weathered dictatorships, invasions, coups, sanctions, revolutions, and wars. They have buried their enemies. They have bartered their souls and bought empires. They will speak in circles until his head reels. They will drown him in inconsequential details. They will promise unity as they hone their blades under the table. Their magnetism is a disguise. Their manners are a decoy. Their politeness is a sword clothed in silk.

They will run circles around........

© Middle East Monitor