The stark fact that significant portions of our planet are under the supervision of exceptionally stupid and ill-informed people is provoking unwonted expressions of anger and alarm. It is hard to think of people more demure in rhetorical comportment than senior envoys of the UN or the British Foreign Office. Yet here we have Lakhdar Brahimi, a UN Under Secretary General and adviser to Kofi Annan, erupting like a soapbox orator.

"There is no doubt," Brahimi told France Inter radio, "that the great poison in the region is this Israeli policy of domination and the suffering imposed on the Palestinians, as well as the perception of all of the population in the region, and beyond, of the injustice of this policy and the equally unjust support...of the United States for this policy.... There are quite a few other people on this planet, and the Americans should also make an effort to learn how to live with them." A few days later Brahimi was at it again, this time on ABC: "What I hear [in Iraq] is that...these Americans who are occupying us are the Americans who are giving this blanket support to Israel.... So how can we believe that the Americans want anything good for us?"

Of course there was a tactical motive in Brahimi's outbursts. As the Baghdad-based executive of the UN's role as after-sales service provider for the United States, he is trying to establish some street cred with Iraqis as he labors to cobble up a puppet government, with roll-out ceremonies scheduled for the end of June. So he can afford to thumb his nose as protests about his indiscretions pour in from New York and Washington, not to mention Tel Aviv. As he demonstrated in Afghanistan, Brahimi is a sedulous servant of empire, handpicked for his Baghdad assignment by the White House. But his outburst had an unusual edge just the same.

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