editorial cartoons

George Bush welcomes Iraqi transitional Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari to the White House. Speeches are made ("great Iraqi patriot…friend of liberty" etc.). Backs are slapped. Constitutional deadlines are agreed. All the usual diplomatic guff. While it can certainly be argued that the Daawa Party Shia candidate does have a mandate form the Iraqi people and Mr Jaafari's appeal as PM will be as a unifying figure, many Sunni Arabs boycotted the elections in January. An opinion poll last year suggested Mr Jaafari was Iraq's most popular in-office politician. However, he still ranked below Ayatollah Sistani and radical imam Moqtada Sadr in the public's esteem. This suggests that any moderate US-friendly Iraqi government may suffer the stigma of being a puppet regime in the minds of its people, certainly while the country is chock-full of 140,000 battle-ready US troops.

Saturday 25/6/05

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