Word: allawi
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...Iyad Allawi's bid to become Iraq's Prime Minister again has received an endorsement from an unexpected source: the Ba'ath Party. A spokesman for the exiled leadership of Saddam Hussein's old party told TIME that Allawi "is the best person at this time to be given the task of ruling Iraq." He said he hoped that Allawi would pave the way for the Ba'ath Party to "return to the political life of Iraq, where we rightfully belong...
...notion of Allawi's return is symptomatic of a bipartisan consensus in the U.S. that Iraq's problems could be solved if the Iraqis would simply do as they're told. Last Wednesday Hillary Clinton offered her advice to Iraq's parliament, saying it should get rid of Prime Minister Maliki and pick a "less divisive and more unifying figure." That echoed remarks made earlier in the week by Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Republican Senator John Warner later chimed in to say Maliki had "totally failed," and was unable "to deliver greater security...
...that's just how Allawi would like to be considered. He follows in the tradition of prewar Iraqi exiles like Ahmad Chalabi whose outlook and politicking play better in Washington than in Baghdad. Allawi is admirable in some respects. In 2004 he supported offensives against both Sunni insurgents and Shi'ite militia - the kind of even-handed approach that impresses Washington and, in a perfect world, would unify Iraqis. But Iraq is far from perfect, and so is Allawi. He was not popular, and even before elections in early 2005, no one thought he had a chance of maintaining...
...Allawi offered support to U.S. forces fighting in Fallujah, Baghdad, and southern Iraq, that support was mostly rhetorical. Very few Iraqis actually showed up to fight and die alongside American soldiers and Marines; more were inspired to take up arms and fight as insurgents and militiamen. In many important respects that dynamic has not changed. Any politician seeking to break the power of Shi'ite militias is faced with a dilemma: you cannot survive in Iraqi politics, much less take on the militias, unless you have armed men of your...
...Allawi was being literal when he promised on Sunday to "fight for [his] country," chances are he'll eventually want to outsource the actual combat to Americans. Allawi's bid for renewed influence, while far-fetched, raises an important question: does America want to leave Iraq, or does it want Iraqis to do what America tells them to do? As long as American politicians insist that Iraqis do things the American way, American soldiers will have to remain in Iraq and provide the muscle...