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| Iraq |
| US, UK losing confidence in al-Jaafari |
| 2005-10-19 |
| THE US and Britain have lost confidence in Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and are hoping that December's elections will bring a new and more efficient government. According to US and British officials, even members of the Iraqi cabinet are dismissive of Dr Jaafari, a former doctor who lived in exile in Britain and Iran, and do not expect him to survive in the job. "I wish January were here now. This Prime Minister is not a natural strong leader," one US official said recently. A British source concurred: "The transitional Government is ineffective." Dr Jaafari, the leader of the Dawa Party, a Shiite religious faction that was long repressed by Saddam Hussein, had been seen as one of the most promising political figures in Iraq and was a popular vice-president in the interim government. But his tenure for the past six months as the first elected prime minister of the post-Saddam era has proven to be a disappointment. Coalition officials complain that Dr Jaafari, 58, has been an ineffective administrator and indecisive politician. The most intense speculation over the succession is focused on the Vice-President, Adel Abdel-Mahdi, a former Maoist turned Shiite Islamist. Given the likelihood that the next prime minister will again be drawn from the majority Shiite population, other possibilities include the return of Iyad Allawi, the former interim prime minister, and the accession of Ahmad Chalabi, the former darling of the Pentagon who bitterly fell out with the US but has remained a force in Shiite politics. Dr Abdel-Mahdi, a 62-year-old economist who spent part of his exile in France, served as finance minister in Mr Allawi's interim government and narrowly lost to Dr Jaafari in the horse-trading to become prime minister earlier this year. Some experts are increasingly asking whether the coalition faces "strategic failure" in Iraq after more than two years of ever-worsening insurgency and failure to deliver basic services. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to face tough questions by senators last night over Washington's policy in Iraq. Dr Rice will testify on US-Iraq policy at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the same day that former president Saddam Hussein was to go on trial in Baghdad for "crimes against humanity". Despite violence that shows no sign of abating, State Department officials said Dr Rice was expected to stress the Bush Administration's view that progress is being made, citing last weekend's relatively peaceful referendum as an example. Iraqis last weekend voted in a referendum for a new constitution and while final results have not been announced, the charter was expected to have been passed. Elections are scheduled for mid-December. The Bush Administration has come under strong criticism from Democrats in particular for not doing enough to stabilise Iraq and of botching rebuilding programs aimed at winning over angry Iraqis. US and British officials hope that, if the constitution is approved, the next round of elections for a four-year government in a permanent system will prove to be the turning point. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 Excellent slam dunk, john, lol. I will confess I never had any confidence in Jaafari, ever. I thought he was a pale wannabee compared to Allawi, a man who took on Saddam's assassins armed with axes. Coming from Rooters and The Age, no doubt this article has editorial axes to grind, political long knives, and cares not a whit for a successful Iraq - the opposite is far more likely, to serve its agenda. I find it sad that the few people who control the agendas of the various "news" outlets will never have to face the people they've striven so hard to keep imprisoned by corrupt thugs, just to score a few points in their derangement games. I still favor hunter / killer teams, of course, to rectify such oversights. I hope Iraqis can, someday, step outside their indoctrination, shrug off the clan, tribe, flavor of Islam, et al and begin to see the bigger picture. Perhaps a successful Kurdistan is the model they need. Those are shoes the average Arab Iraqis can imagine themselves wearing. Should that happen, then indeed, they could serve as examples to all of the other Arabs in bondage to monarchs, thugs, and mullahs - who will be able to imagine themselves in Iraqi shoes... But I doubt they will have the century or two it would take them to "get it" - they've allowed the worst among them to rise to the top, intimidate them, co-opt them, and make them their resource pool. Indistinguishable, they are, now, when the killing breaks out. Many branches of the tree have died off or been pruned by reality. More will follow. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-10-19 20:27 |
| #1 So we continue to see articles that quote anonymous sources, in this case THE US and Britain (whole countries? why was I not asked?), US and British officials, one US official, Coalition officials, Some experts, State Department officials, US and British officials This article is pure gossip. |
| Posted by: john 2005-10-19 20:04 |