Apologies to the late Frank Zappa.

It seems that there is at least one American CPA administrator in Iraq who might be getting a clue.

When American diplomat Keith Mines wanted the bombed-out Baath Party headquarters here torn down, he began with contracting rules issued by the U.S. occupation authority. He posted an official notice soliciting bids. A week later, he accepted several sealed proposals, planning to choose the lowest bid.

Then Hamid Rashid Mahenna, an influential tribal sheik, heard about the contract. Mahenna wears suede jackets and a red-and-white headscarf, smokes Dunhill cigarettes, and owns a construction company. His tribesmen had been helping U.S. forces in Ramadi -- and he figured it was payback time. After the deadline, he drove up in his white Mercedes and handed Mines four sealed envelopes. Inside, Mines said, were bids far higher than those from other Iraqi contractors.

...
"I don't have a lot of other options," Mines said. "The sheiks are a valuable bridge into the community."

A key uncertainty in the gamble Mines has taken is whether or not the sheiks will deliver. Thus far, the sheiks have not lessened the resistance, prompting questions about whether tribal leaders are doing enough to bring their followers in line. But sheiks in Ramadi insist their power only goes so far. "We try, but we cannot control every one of our members," said Bazia Gaoud, the stout leader of the Bunimir tribe.
...
When Mahenna, who leads the Bu-Alwan tribe, heard that Mines was looking for a contractor to tear down the Baath Party headquarters and build a park dedicated to peace, the sheik swung into action. He had his construction company -- one of several businesses he owns -- draw up four sealed bids for Mines, ranging from $75,000 to $120,000

As he handed over envelopes, Mines recalled him saying, "I hope you'll be fair to me."
...
"Thirty-five thousand is nothing," Mahenna told Mines, in an openly complaining tone. "What am I going to tell my people?"

"You're going to tell them we have a park," Mines responded.

"It's not enough," Mahenna protested.

"The big contracts are coming," Mines said. "We're just getting started."

With that, Mahenna pulled out three envelopes from his leather folder. Inside were bids for other contracts. "These I want for me," he said, thrusting the envelopes at Mines.

Then Mahenna got in his Mercedes and drove away.

"Dealing with the sheiks isn't easy," Mines said as he watched the car pull out of the parking lot. "But we don't have another choice."

The problem is, as the story says, if there not a reasonable feeling among many Iraqi's in the next six months that we have made some kind of progress in the "fixing" department, all the efforts of the CPA will be in the dumper. Big Time.

Iraq is a country where respect comes from a Gun, a Buck or both. Up until now, we've had both, but the 1600 Crew is notorious for getting bored with a problem and then removing option two (the bucks) while leaving the bearers of option one to clean up...think Afghanistan. At this point, I doubt that the "insurgents" will ever let them pump out economic quantities of Oil...which leads to the boredom factor going up and the quagmire aspect increasing. Gosh, who said Vietnam?