This Guy Gets It. Bush Doesn't

Iraqi Prime Minister al-Jaafari spoke to the NYT. He wants to stay in office and wants to include militia leader al-Sadr in the political process. Which isn't something Bush wants at all.

With backing from Shia parties, Prime Minister al-Jaafari is seeking to stay in office but his candidacy has proved contentious among parliamentary factions, which have yet to agree on a national unity government three months after national elections.

In an interview with The New York Times published on Thursday, al-Jaafari said that certain comments from US officials had undermined the US president's public stance in favour of democracy in Iraq.

"There was a stand from both the American government and President Bush to promote a democratic policy and protect its interests," he told the paper in an interview conducted at his Baghdad home.

"But now there's concern among the Iraqi people that the democratic process is being threatened."

Its sad I feel a need to accept al-Jaafari's version of what has happened rather than that of the POTUS.

Al-Jaafari's comments came a day after the White House denied reports from Iraq that Bush had told a top Shia leader that he opposed al-Jaafari as the country's next prime minister.

What should irk Bush even more is the inclusion of al-Sadr.

Kurdish and Sunni representatives accuse al-Jaafari of running a sectarian-tinged government and collaborating with Muqtada al-Sadr, who leads a powerful Shia militia and controls a bloc of 32 seats in the parliament.

But al-Jaafari defended including militia leaders such as al-Sadr in the political arena, though he did not say in the interview what concessions he may have granted to al-Sadr, the newspaper reported.

He said he disagreed with Paul Bremer, the former US administrator in Baghdad, who barred al-Sadr and some other militia groups from participating in the political process.

"I look at them as part of Iraq's de facto reality, whether some of the individual people are negative or positive," he told The Times.

"Anyone who's part of the Iraqi reality should be part of the Iraqi house."

I've posted before that a leader such as Interim Prime Minister Allawi can be installed who won't have the backing of the people. Then you have natural born leaders like al-Sadr who does have popular support. There is no chance of success in Iraqi politics if al-Sadr is excluded.