Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has blown off the president of the U.S.A.

[kpete]

From: JUAN COLE

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has blown off the president of the United States. Bush sent Sistani a letter asking him to intervene to help end the gridlock in the formation of a new Iraqi government. Asked about his response, an aide said that Sistani had not opened the letter and had put it aside in his office.

Sistani does not approve of the American presence in Iraq, and certainly disapproves of the Bush administration's attempt to unseat Ibrahim Jaafari as the candidate of the United Iraqi Alliance. Middle Easterners have had Western Powers dictate their politics to them for a couple of centuries and are pretty tired of it.

It is rumored that after the December 15 elections, Bush told Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish President of Iraq, that he would prevent the Shiite coalition from taking power this time, which encouraged Talabani to try to unseat Jaafari. Bush's plan, however, would only work if the neo-Baathists, the Sunni fundamentalists, the Kurds and the secular Shiites can consistently work together, and if a substantial number of Shiites defects from the United Iraqi Alliance to help elect a president by 2/3s majority. Pigs will fly first.

Meanwhile, Bush's tinkering with Iraqi politics has contributed mightily to the gridlock in forming a government. Jaafari's bargaining position has been perhaps fatally undermined. And Washington is blaming the Iraqis! At least Bush is a consistent foul-up.

http://www.juancole.com/2006/03/al-anizi-us-is-training-insubordinate.html

[Gloria]

1. I picked something in an article in the foreign press that

Sistani has cancer. Wonder how this will complicate things in the future....

[Babel_17]

2. I didn't know that, I think ....

in an odd way his cancer might serve to magnify his influence. He's already revered and he's seen as one of the more spiritual religious leaders. People might see him as being even more in touch with Allah now that his days might be numbered.

Sort of like how MLK's speeches given just prior to his assassination still resonate with an almost eerie power.

But the political equation, people seeing an imminent power vacuum, might trump that.

[alfredo]

3. Your subject line made me do a double-take.

I have such a dirty mind