NEW GUYS

I have to keep checking on who's-who in Iraq. And not get it mixed up with the guy in Iran, or the Afghan guy. I can't pronounce the names quickly and spelling defeats me, so ...

Here's a jingle:
Allawi's the guy in Iraq --
Not the guy to mock, or whack.
King-pin Al-Sadr says Nouri's out,
And he knows what Iraq's about.
TV "Iraiya" says hurrah -- it's him --
Nouri-al-Maliki's future is dim.

Here's the cast list:
Nouri al-Maliki -- current prime minister.
Al-Sadr -- powerful Shia cleric.
Iraiya -- Satellite news that 85 % of the Iraqi people watch.
Iraiya's head guy, Jaml al-Bateekh says it's Allawi.
But Iyad Allawi is four seats short of the majority needed to form a government.

So, who's who in Iran?
The President is still Mahmoud Ahmadinajad, who wears American suits and insists there wasn't a holocaust, who lost the election last year, but claims he won it.

The Ayatollah Kahomeni, head religious guy, said the voter turnout during last year's religious holidays was a "divine assessment" and pardoned 81 of the 530 prisoners, diverting attention away from Ahmadinajad, who's proclaimed the election was "completely free, a great victory for Iran," dismissing the protests as little more than "passions after a soccer match."

Well, one of the candidates, Mousavi, who probably won, lodged an official appeal. Karroubi, the reform candidate, who supports civil rights and women's rights, demanded the election be canceled, and says, "We'll fight to the death."

A graphic video showing a young girl, Neda Soltan's death on the street during the riots was posted on YouTube and viewed by millions around the world, turning her into an icon of Iran's "Green Movement." In a new documentary that investigates Neda's killing, with no mention of last June's election/riots/protests, a guard, Abbas Kargar, is accused of shooting her (he's Persian so Iran's blaming it on Persia).

Here's my jingle:
In Iran, resident President Ahmadinajad can
Play things his way, and say
Down with the Jews -- that's old news!
There's no green revolution.
Nothing needs a solution.
Karroubi didn't win --
Mousavi's a has-been.
There's nothing to fear --
We're doing nothing nuclear.

So what's confusing about that?

And Afghanistan? The head guy is Karzai, who's sort of on friendly terms with Hillary Clinton and Obama, but doesn't want the U.S. training soldiers, or empowering other local guys, and he's openly opposed to General Patraeus.

So:
The do-or-die, Karzai
Says no,
Wants us to go.
Says pooh --
On what we want him to do.
What now? Holy cow--
The end of occupation?
Or continuing aggravation?

So, now you know what I know. Aside from who's-who, and what's-what, and a bunch of hard-to-pronounce/hard-to-remember names, I am worried -- bewildered -- not sure where we are heading, and why we're heading wherever we seem, more or less, to be heading?