Iraq ex-PM Allawi eyes old job, backed by old (insurgent) foes

[ECH1969]

BAGHDAD, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Iyad Allawi reckons he could be Iraq's prime minister again after Thursday's election -- and this time, he says, it won't be Americans who put him there but, possibly, old enemies whose rebel towns he once ordered bombed.

"They know I wasn't after them," he said in an interview, chuckling at the popularity his strongman image has lately won him in a town where a year ago he gave U.S. troops the go-ahead to crush a revolt by minority Sunni Arab guerrillas. "Saddam is finished," he said. "If you want to bring in a person like Bin Laden, we'll fight you room to room."

Now, running on a broad, non-sectarian slate, the secular Shi'ite said late on Saturday he is talking to representatives of the insurgents and winning them over with promises to address their grievances and pump money into battered towns like Falluja.

No opinion polls are available but anecdotal evidence suggests Allawi, long an ally of U.S. and British intelligence who returned from exile in London to lead the first, appointed government after the U.S. invasion, is picking up strong support.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L11728318.htm

[MrPrax]

1. Surprise...

It's not a New York Times byline--NYT is singularly obsessed with the political aspirations of Allawi and Chalabi. In fact, the NYT makes these guys look so good, it's no wonder, they don't run against Hillary.

Another wannabe Peacock thug puppet that is more 'part of the problem' than part of the any solution.