Bush and the Ayatollah (This will be good for Bush in November)

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1137592,00.html

One Iraqi Shia cleric may yet make Washington see sense on free elections and the UN

Salim Lone
Tuesday February 3, 2004
The Guardian

Even as one recoils at the carnage caused by the suicide bombings at the offices of Kurdish political parties, it becomes ever more impossible to understand how the US can justify occupation policies that have singularly failed to quell the insurgency and the spectre of civil war - and have not won over even a tiny minority of Iraqis to support continued US control.

The latest strikes will also complicate Kofi Annan's decision on whether to field the UN's world-class electoral team in Iraq, even though there is widespread agreement on the need for UN involvement in the process leading to the end of the occupation.

In the darkness, however, there is a glimmer of hope. The Bush administration's resistance to acknowledging any of the disasters of its Iraq policy seems finally to have been broken by the refusal of Ali al-Sistani, the powerful Shia grand ayatollah, to back down from his insistence that only elected bodies can preside over the restoration of his country's sovereignty.

The US decision to retreat from plans to appoint Iraqi delegates who would choose a new government - and at the same time, after a year's steadfast refusal, to seek a UN role in the country's political evolution - offers the first hint that America has recognised its need for the voice and expertise of others to fashion a successful exit strategy.

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[Taeger]

1. Kurds

The Kurds are the ultimate bitch in Iraqi reconstruction. They are our ONLY reliable allies on the ground. Yet the Turks and Shiites are pushing hard to deny Kurdish autonomy. They even oppose a federal system that would make Kurdistan the equivalent of a US state (in an Iraqi Republic of course).

Without Kurdish sovereignty, there can be no peace. With Kurdish sovereignty, it seems like their will ALSO be no peace.