Democracy: Iraq votes, Bush vetoes

Mar 31, 2006
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HC31Ak01.html

By Ehsan Ahrari

-- Call it desperation, but the United States has started to take measures in Iraq that would wreck its most cherished goal there: democracy.

US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad is reportedly campaigning to either dump the United Iraqi Alliance's (UIA) candidate for prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, or force him to withdraw. Khalilzad has taken the drastic measure of appealing to the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to that effect.

Parliament's largest bloc nominates the prime minister under Iraq's constitution, and last month Jaafari captured the nomination by one vote with the help of Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. However, the 275-member parliament is now at an impasse in talks over forming a new government as the main Kurdish, Sunni Arab and secular blocs staunchly oppose a Jaafari premiership.

If democracy is meant to reflect the will of the people, Jaafari, for all his flaws, is a legitimate candidate to become the country's first permanent prime minister. But US President George W Bush is making it clear that his version of democracy in Iraq means having his preferred candidate at the helm.

full article: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HC31Ak01.html

this is a very good article . . .


this was my attempt to call them out on this at the beginning of the week:

Re-Installing Democracy
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ron_full_060325_re_installing_democr.htm


here's an article from a couple of days ago accusing Bush of interfering:

Senior Iraqi politician says Bush interfering in selection of govt. head
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-03-28T134117Z_01_MAC837810_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-USA-JAAFARI.xml&archived=False

when it goes their way

Every move they've made since confirms it....

but they ignore the rest of democracy's tenets.

This might be the reason the US may want him to step aside. The US government didn't seem to have that much of a problem with Jaafari when he was PM last year.

If you want your troops out of Iraq, a government is going to have to be formed first. And until that happens, your soldiers are not going anywhere.

and the Bush regime . . .

You'd do better tracking their true motives in Iraq. Everything they say about winding down the 'mission' is for political ears. Everything else they do says they want a permanent stay, and they're jumping on everything they can to justify staying.

What they really want is Allawi back in a position of power to muddle the Shiite influence. Allawi's a false ally of the Sunnis,hard to see how he would represent them. But, he's a non-partisan when it comes to using the military forces against Iraqis, like he and Bush did in Fallujah when he was interim minister.

Arab Times reports:

POWER GRAB SEEN IN ‘ALLAWI COUNCIL

http://www.arabtimesonline.com/arabtimes/world/viewdet.asp?id=7376&cat=a

An agreement by Iraqi leaders to set up a national Security Council reflects efforts to curb the power of Shi’ite Islamists and sidestep deadlock in talks on a unity government, political sources said on Monday. The council is likely to provide a platform for former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a secular figure popular in Washington, to take a lead in trying to stop Iraq sliding into civil war and may meet before a deal is reached on a national unity cabinet. Indeed the council, whose creation was announced on Sunday, will be a powerful parallel administration, in overall control of security, the economy and all major policy decisions, reducing the influence of Shi’ite Islamists.

“The point of forming the Council was political compromise,” a senior source in the Shi’ite Alliance bloc said. “Some parties want to take decision making out of the hands of the majority.” The Alliance’s strength in parliament gives it a lock on the premiership. It is resisting pressure to drop Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and also rejects Sunni, Kurdish and US complaints about its controversial interior minister. Several sources said that Allawi, who was premier in 2004 under US control, is a prime candidate to lead the Council. “The job was created for him,” a senior political source said. “We have been discussing it for at least two months.”


Reuters also: http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/allawi-says-high-security-can-save-iraq/2006/03/22/1142703390222.html

"Allawi's secular outlook and decades in exile as an ally of United States intelligence against Saddam Hussein make him popular in Washington, where mistrust of the dominant, Iranian-backed Shi'ite Islamist parties has grown in the past year.

The creation of a new Security Council announced this week is, political sources say, designed to bypass the wrangling over a unity government and give Allawi, as the council's likely head, a major role in fighting armed groups on all sides.

Appointed under US control in 2004, Allawi launched US assaults on both Sunni and Shi'ite rebels while in office."

Shi'as grow unhappy over U.S. 'meddling'

Friday, March 31, 2006
BY QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Associated Press
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1143790830238470.xml&coll=1

BAGHDAD -- A letter from President Bush to Iraq's supreme Shi'a spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, was hand-delivered earlier this week but sits unread and untranslated in the top religious figure's office, a key Sistani aide told the Associated Press yesterday.

The aide -- who has never allowed use of his name in news reports, citing Sistani's refusal to make any public statements himself -- said the ayatollah had laid the letter aside and did not ask for a translation because of increasing "unhappiness" over what senior Shi'a leaders see as American meddling in Iraqi attempts to form their first, permanent post-invasion government.

The messenger also was said to have explained that the letter reinforced the American position that Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari should not be given a second term. Sistani has not publicly taken sides in the dispute but rather has called for Shi'a unity.

The Sistani aide said Shi'a displeasure with U.S. involvement was so deep that dignitaries in the holy city of Najaf refused to meet Khalilzad on Wednesday during ceremonies commemorating the death of the prophet Muhammad.

The United States is believed to oppose Jaafari because of his close ties and strong backing from radical Shi'a cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has a thousands-strong heavily armed militia that was responsible for much of the violence that hit the country after the Feb. 22 bombing of an important Shi'a shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad.

full report: http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1143790830238470.xml&coll=1

It's the VERY least...America could do! Bush has the experience dictating now! He will be needing a job soon anyway. Maybe he can sell his neocon agenda in Iraq! Or, send the Supreme Court Repubs over there and let them elect a pResident, that's the way democracy works, here in the real world.