Insurgents fail to break Allawi's resolve

The Times ^ | September 18, 2004 | Richard Beeston

[MadIvan]

ON A hot dusty Baghdad morning this week Iyad Allawi stepped out of his black bullet-proof limousine on to the tarmac of an American military helicopter pad.

The top two US military officers in Iraq crisply saluted the country’s first postwar Prime Minister and one even embraced his bear-like figure.

Moments later a pair of Blackhawk helicopters swooped down and Dr Allawi, surrounded by a phalanx of American bodyguards and a Pentagon liaison officer, climbed aboard.

Door gunners loaded their machineguns and the aircraft skimmed over the city’s rooftops, setting down moments later at the Baghdad police academy. The distance was about two miles, but in the current climate of violence the man entrusted to run Iraq is unable even to drive through the centre of his own capital in daylight.

Certainly his American backers did not want to run the risk of losing one of the few Iraqi assets they have intact. Yet this is the man on whom President Bush and Tony Blair are depending on to stop Iraq imploding, and whom they will be parading in London, Washington and New York this coming week as a symbol of the new Iraq.

On this occasion Dr Allawi, a British-trained neurosurgeon, chatted with Iraqi police recruits and tried to bolster their morale in a week in which about 50 of their colleagues were killed in two suicide bomb attacks.

Minutes later he was shuttling back by helicopter to his home inside the heavily defended compound that serves as the US military headquarters and the newly opened American Embassy.

For a prime minister whose authority does not extend to large swaths of the country, including the capital, this half-leader, half-prisoner existence could be disheartening. But Dr Allawi, an imposing but faintly shambolic-looking figure whose six-foot frame fits uneasily into a double-breasted suit, seems unperturbed.

Looking like a cross between Clive James and Tony Soprano, he manages to smile at his predicament and aides insist that he remains one of the toughest and most determined players in Iraqi politics.

During his outing this week he was nursing a heavily bandaged right arm, injured after he slammed a table too hard in frustration at an act of incompetence by a subordinate.

“No one ever said that he was the white knight in shining armour who would solve everything,” said a British official. “The odds were stacked against him from the very start. But he is doing a fine job under the circumstances and he is not giving up.”

This weekend Dr Allawi embarks on a pivotal mission to make sure his allies are just as committed. Leaving the region for the first time since he came to power four months ago, he will attempt to persuade Western public opinion that Iraq can still be rescued from the chaos gripping the country and that the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime was justified.

Tomorrow he will meet Tony Blair in Downing Street. He then travels to Washington to address a joint session of the US Congress. Finally he will address world leaders gathered in New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly.

The task before him is enormous. After taking office in late May, Dr Allawi enjoyed a brief honeymoon period when he managed to convince many Iraqis he would be tough about restoring law and order while the country moved towards democracy.

Within days Saddam Hussein was brought to court and old rivals such as Ahmad Chalabi were threatened with criminal proceedings — moves backed by many Iraqis. Underpinning it all was Dr Allawi’s promise to hold democratic elections in January. But that tricky balancing act has now all but collapsed.

His first setback was last month’s bloody battle for control of Najaf when US forces took on militia loyal to the Shia Muslim cleric Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr. Not only were Iraqis, including members of the Government, outraged that foreign forces were fighting around Shia Islam’s holiest shrine, but also Dr Allawi’s weakness was exposed when Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani had to intervene to halt the fighting. Now Dr Allawi’s authority is being challenged by the escalating Iraqi insurgency which has made most of central Iraq, including areas of Baghdad, ungovernable.

This week more than 200 Iraqis have been killed in bomb attacks in Baghdad and retaliatory strikes by US aircraft. Yesterday at least 44 people were killed in air raids on the town of Fallujah. The sense of anarchy has been compounded by a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of seven Westerners.

“He had a great opportunity to win the support of the Iraqi people, but he has missed his chance,” Adel Madkhoor, a political scientist at Baghdad University, said. “Everyone wants security in Iraq. But by using overwhelming force in the form of foreign troops he has aligned himself with the occupiers. He is now compromised in many Iraqi eyes.”

While that may well be true, experts caution against underestimating Dr Allawi’s tenacity. He is certainly a difficult man to deter. During his three decades in exile he nearly died when an assassin, on orders from Saddam’s regime, attacked him with an axe one night in his home in Surrey.

Dr Allawi subsequently went on to form an anti-Saddam movement, returned after the war and is now pressing to have his old rival put on trial before the end of the year.

A CAREER IN EXILE

# 1945: born into a prominent Shia Muslim family in Baghdad. A cousin by marriage of Ahmad Chalabi, the now disgraced leader of the Iraqi National Congress

# 1971: goes to London to study medicine

# 1975: resigns from the Iraqi Baath Party

# 1976: gets degree and works as consultant for World Health Organisation and United Nations Development Programme

# 1978: survives attack by an alleged Saddam assassin at home in Surrey. Left for dead after being hit with an axe on the head, chest and thigh

# 1980s: said to have formed ties with MI6 and the CIA during exile

# 1990: creates Iraqi National Accord as a conduit for defectors

# 1996: masterminds coup attempt with CIA backing

# 2003: returns to Iraq and is given a seat on the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council

# 2004: appointed interim Prime Minister to serve until elections in January next year

[MadIvan]

Sounds like the right man for the job.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Ping!

[WOSG]

Headline should read ...

MAINSTREAM MEDIA FAIL TO BREAK RESOLVE OF ALLIES.

http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com