Updated 11/9 2:20 PM EST
Though it seems that an actual deal to secure a new government is still a long way off, the Obama Administration has decided that Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is on the way out, according to a number of Kurdish officials.
Indeed, officials say both President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have made phone calls to the Kurdish political bloc in recent days demanding that Talabani resign from his position as president to set the stage for a new unity government.
Talabani’s Kurdistania Bloc lost considerable seats in the March election but was still seen as likely to retain the presidency given their eagerness to play a role in whatever coalition might emerge. Kurdish officials have condemned the US demand and say it is “out of the question” that Talabani will resign.
The Obama Administration however has designs on Ayad Allawi taking the presidency spot, in the hopes that this can convince the former prime minister to keep his Sunni-dominated Iraqiya bloc out of the opposition. It seems unlikely the dispute is over.
Iraqiya won 91 seats in the election, the largest plurality of any bloc, but seems to have failed to build a coalition government, and the second-place State of Law bloc of Nouri al-Maliki seems poised to take over.
While it is not unheard of for the largest bloc in a parliamentary system to wind up in the opposition (Israel’s Kadima faction leads that nation’s opposition since the 2009 vote, despite having more seats than the ruling Likud Party) it is seen as extremely undesirable to the Obama Administration, as Iraq faces a growing Sunni insurgency fueled by voter dissatisfaction.
So I guess it's good that we brought them democracy.
Yes, it is the right political system, that builds a man, not the other way around. Just look at the American evolution into unaccountability for leaders, torture, economic chaos, surveillance, control. What splendid results! This must convince anybody to rally around that notion.
Well Said Montaigne…..!!
This is the first step to put their favorit (not the Iraqi people favorit) at the top of the ruling pyramid. If this happend expect in in the few years either Allawi to be a prime minister or changing the Iraqi ruling system to presedency. Democracy at its best. Thanks America.
Is it just me or does Talabani really look like he's performing an imaginary rectal exam?
Why are they so shy about appointing the one they want – for the moment. If he doesn't work out or can't deliver look at what happened to "our guys " in Vietnam. Or better yet, why not give them voting machines like ours?
“We’re ready to have that discussion if and when they want to raise it with us,” Gates said, adding that the “initiativ clearly needs to come from the Iraqis; we are open to discussing it.” said Gates about the possibility of conitnuing the Iraq war past 2011. Has Allawi secretly agreed with Obama's people to invite the Americans to have troops stay past 2011 if they put him in power? Is that why they're so hot to get him in power?
Ah…..Yes….let them vote, but if they don't vote "sensibly". call in the bombers….Like Israel in Gaza … Seems like we have seen this "problem" before…. It surely must have happened in the Balkans too.
Nonsense, this is not why the outcome is not desirable. Alawi has to be showed in at all costs. Once an "asset" always an asset.
It seems the 'antiwar' philosophy of this website is actually to pacify resistance against the forces of U$-ImperioCapitalism as they rampage and terrorise their way across the planet. Having reconciled itself with each fiat accompli established through unlawful force, the perspective of practically every story is how to game the current situation to produce optimal results for the aggressor.
For example, in this article about Iraqi elections and how these may form a democratic government, there are certain unmentioned presumptions which create an impression heavily skewed from reality and legality:
1. U$A has some intrinsic right to interfere in the internal political development of Iraq -v- such interference is expressly prohibited by the UN Charter.
2. Iraqi elections were sufficiently fair to create a democratic mandate through which to exercise the powers of government -v- there can be no fair elections under hostile occupation, the present puppet parliament is a bunch of quisling usurpers and the only legitimate government is the anti-occupation National Resistance.
3. The Pentagon is a reliable information source re. "a growing Sunni insurgency" -v- U$A ruthlessly manipulates the sectarian militias to produce atrocity results for its benefit, justifying a permanent military presence and thus ability to retain control over the balance of Iraqi political power.
Therefore, in the interests of honesty, I propose this site either be renamed 'Anti-Resistance.com' or have its political premises seriously and openly reassessed by the readership.
If this is not done, Raimondo's vaunted 'new popular front antiwar movement' is guaranteed to be as much a failure as the previous version, and for exactly the same basic reason — gutless political dishonesty.