So it looks like Iraq's new leader will be elected democratically, in an election by either the Pentagon or the State Department. But Mr Chalabi is not one to accept defeat easily. He turned his attention back to the US, where his lobbying contributed to the passing of the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act, a move that would be key to the subsequent US shift from a policy of containment of Iraq to one of regime change. A reluctant Clinton administration was forced to begin funding opposition groups such as the INC. .... Paul Wolfowitz, the neo-conservative deputy secretary of defence, was asked at a Congressional hearing about Mr Chalabi's sudden appearance in the south. He rejected commentaries in the press as "verging on paranoia"; Mr Chalabi was not an insignificant figure, he said, "but we also are not trying to anoint him, or anyone else, as the leader of Iraq". One member of the opposition who will attend the Nasiriya meeting remains sceptical about Mr Chalabi. "They [the US] took him first to Nasiriya and then, so as not to look like they're taking sides, they told all of us to come there too. But we'll be there for a day and leave. At the end, he will have the advantage." http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentS...y&c=StoryFT&cid=1048313701334&p=1012571727088
For a minute I thought it would be Mr. Cam. He'll probably the new Iraqi Education Secretary, though, FOOL!
Yeah, that's exactly what Wolfowitz meant by "we also are not trying to anoint him, or anyone else, as the leader of Iraq".
Well, I get the feeling Powell ain't going to be around for another whole term in the Bush Administration so they are going to need some form of reasonable counterweight to the whackos in there.