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May 30, 2004
WWF politics
All this talk about how the Iraqi Governing Council is in a confrontation with Bremer over the choice of the presidency of the Interim Government smacks of pro-wrestling to me. A typical story reads like this one:
A council member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. governor of Iraq, Paul Bremer, and special UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi were exerting “massive pressure” to choose former Foreign Minister Adnan Pachachi.However, the council member said most of the 22 members favoured the current head of the council, civil engineer Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer. Both are Sunni Arab Muslims.
Mr. Bremer and U.S. President George W. Bush's special envoy, Robert Blackwill, attended part of a five-hour council session Sunday and urged the members not to vote on the presidency choice, according to one council member.
The Americans threatened not to recognize the council's choice, the member said on condition of anonymity.
The presidency is largely ceremonial. Iyad Allawi has been appointed to the prime ministry by the Americans with the help of the IGC. As the same story points out later "Council sources said agreement has been reached on several of the 26 Cabinet posts." Most news organizations understand the "sovereignty" is mostly joke but continue to pretend otherwise in the way they report the story. Note the phrase "take power":
Iraqi leaders wrangled Sunday over who should succeed Saddam Hussein as president, after agreeing on other key posts in the government that will take power next month from the U.S. occupation authority.
So, now, we gotta have some showdown, some show of spine before the audience pelts the performers and demands their money back. So enjoy the "choke slam" moment and please empty the stadium in an orderly fashion.
Posted by zeynep at May 30, 2004 03:10 PM
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