Iraq PM Lets Shiites Consider Replacement

Las Vegas Sun ^ | April 20, 2006 at 8:26:22 PDT | QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA ASSOCIATED PRESS

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Breakthrough???

[Allegra]

Breakthrough???

I'd say so.

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

It only takes one "Manchurian candidate" to screw up the works....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Great....keep us updated on anything you see.....!!!

[Allegra]

This has been in the works for a while. The majority of Shiites don't want to go in the al-Sadr/Iran direction at all. Jaafari's ties to that group were seen as a major liability to stabilizing the country.

With Jaafari out of the way, it will be easier to bring the Mahdi Militia and its scumbag leader, al-Sadr under control. Without Jaafari in power, al-Sadr is neutralized.

This is a very good thing! :-)

[Marine_Uncle]

I am pinging some folks who may be interested in reading this article.
Please do not feel obligated to respond. Obviously Ernest and Allegra where already in conversation.

I know what I want to believe here, but is it to good to be true? The wording is quite specific. If the reporting is an honest representation of the current conditions perhaps things will actually move forward in selecting all the mininitry posts and other required government positions.
For all we know, this UN envoy, Ashraf Qazi, may have simply echoed what Condi, Straw, and US Ambasador Kalmay Khalizad have been saying all along. Being, the only way for a united national government to be formed is to give other party lists a chance in the process.
These people in my opinion, have been so fractioned by so many years of pre-Saddam and Saddam's reign that they just cannot trust one another. Surely it is no different then say in the US, democrates and republicans attempting to work on bi-partisan issues, where one simply does not know who can be trusted to act in good faith, and who will stab someone in the back.
On the real negative side, is that a near majority of Shia, within the context, of the UIA alliances can always come back and say in effect, see we gave in and allowed others we really did not want to participate a chance, and now look what happened, nothing is improving.
Surely a difficult situation. And we all know, regardless of the formation of a new government, the violence may not subside one bit. It most probably will intensify giving the L/MSM more reasons to hammer away. And at the same time prevent a lot of foreign help/commercial/banking/inductry etc., from being willing to come to Iraq to do business.
So many parts of the equation(s) to consider.
I understand the deep divisions between the two major blocks within the UIA, and the one vote difference. So we should not have to take issue with my next to last paragraph. Never the less those mosty but not limited to the Dawa party are almost at half majority within the UIA. Obvously a major alliance within the Shia/some Kurdish communities.

[jveritas]

That is excellent news.

[Allegra]

And we all know, regardless of the formation of a new government, the violence may not subside one bit.

It has subsided. Significantly.

The place I arrived in for the first time about 29 months ago and this place now are two different animals.

There are still incidents, but it is nothing like the chaos of the earlier days. Things are MUCH better now. And they're improved from one year ago and from six months ago.

There IS progress and it IS moving forward. I wish all of you could see the reality here and see how badly the media distorts things here.

I'll keep saying it as long as people will listen:

This is going to work.

[bnelson44]

"There was a signal from Najaf," Othman said, referring to al-Sistani's office in the Shiite holy city. "Qazi's meetings with (al-Sistani) and al-Sadr were the chief reason that untied the knot."

Wonder what Qazi's meetings with al-Sadr means in this context?

[Marine_Uncle]

" I'll keep saying it as long as people will listen: This is going to work."
I have no reason to doubt you. What some may not recognize is that you may get to talk with people who go to and fro between the green zone and elsewhere in the capital as well as perhaps day trips for instance to provincial capitals for instance.
And though you may not talk directly with them you most probably get good seconday source scuttlebut.
So I have to take your word over some half baked thin white wristed reporter who may have spent their day whoofing down martinis then stand outside in front of a camera.
Stay healthy.

[Marine_Uncle]

"Wonder what Qazi's meetings with al-Sadr means in this context?"
I also wonder. Could be the UN envoy spoke in same terms as Condi/Straw/Zalmay Khalilzad, indicating Iraq will go down the tubes if a government that will be willing to represent all Iraqi and in addition be willing to do business with westerners is not put in place. Surely, Sistani and his senior clerics can see Sadr must be muzzled once and for all, or at least made impotent for the next four years. Once the government is formed, he and like minded Shia radicals could be forced into a minor role.
And that scenario apparently meets what Sistani has gone for all along. Let the Clergy only be concerned with religious matters and not politics or goverance.

[Marine_Uncle]

"That is excellent news."
Sure appears on the surface. Now will we see some real results in the next few days. As the article indicates, the UIA asked for a few more days to finalize a new candidate, as well as the parliament holding off what they where supposed to meet on to elect the speaker of parliament that apparently has been approved by all.
If we do not see anything new come out of this say by this following Tuesday, I am suspect, they may still be a long way off. April 28^th may go by with nothing resolved.

[Allegra]

And though you may not talk directly with them you most probably get good seconday source scuttlebut.

I work with them, talk with them, and even live with some of them. I have many close Iraqi friends now. Two of my employees are local nationals and we have them in spades working for us here. Some live on our compound because it has become known that they work with Americans and it's dangerous for them to go to their homes right now.

So I've been interacting with the Iraqis for a couple of years. They're so much like we are. We drink together, we laugh and cut up together, and one thing I've learned is they want the same thing we do. To live free and without fear. They're not like what the news depicts at all. And believe me, I was as surprised (and delightedly so) to discover this.

[Marine_Uncle]

I suspected that you personally knew at least a few Iraqi, due to your work environment. Appreciate your detailed reply.
Pretty soon you shall be able to count days to your R&R on your toes. Hang in there.

[Allegra]

Pretty soon you shall be able to count days to your R&R on your toes.

11.

[MikefromOhio]

nah your vision is skewed :)

[bnelson44]

Where are you going?

[Marine_Uncle]

"11"
Hang in there.

[McGavin999]

Late Wednesday, the Sunnis decided to support Adnan al-Dulaimi for speaker, a post held by a Sunni Arab in the last parliament.

Allegra, do you know who Al Dulaimi is? Is he Shiia? Is he with Dawa or SCIRI? It might give us a clue about what they are planning.