Bush, Maliki Offer a Tale Of Two Revolts

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WASHINGTON — As President Bush prepares to meet Wednesday with Prime Minister Maliki of Iraq, both leaders are facing different kinds of revolts at home from their own parties.

On CBS News, Senator-elect Corker, a Republican, stressed that America had to “talk to all players in the region,” pointing to Iran and Syria. Mr. Bush and Secretary of State Rice thus far have resisted the chorus of voices in Washington calling for a new round of engagement with the two states that Mr. Bush and Ms. Rice accuse of sabotaging Iraq’s fragile government. Earlier this month, however, the State Department’s Iraq coordinator told the Senate Armed Services Committee that discussions with Iran were under consideration.

On “Fox News Sunday,” the incoming Senate minority whip, Trent Lott, a Republican of Mississippi, said he believed “the circumstances have to change” in Iraq. He questioned whether the government in Iraq, led by Mr. Maliki, understood this, adding that it had to be determined.

Mr. Maliki’s situation is more dire than the president’s. In Sadr City, the Shiite-Arab ghetto outside of Baghdad that is home to the most ardent supporters of a Shiite leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, the premier’s motorcade was pelted with stones by residents angry about his pending meeting with Mr. Bush. The attack on the motorcade capped a weekend when Mr. Sadr’s militia, the Mahdi Army, attacked mosques and were showcased on the state-run television station, known as al-Iraqiya. This weekend a slate of legislators in Baghdad threatened to leave the government if Mr. Maliki went ahead with plans to meet Mr. Bush in Amman, Jordan.

The escalating violence in Baghdad and emboldened actions from the followers of Mr. Sadr — the most potent rival to Mr. Maliki for political leadership of the Shiites in Iraq — underscore the high stakes of the meeting this week. Aides to Mr. Bush stressed that he was traveling to Jordan to sound out advice and options on Iraq from the region’s leaders. That was the theme of Vice President Cheney’s visit to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia over the weekend.

While the short-term outlook for Iraq looks bleak in light of recent events, the long term implications of the war are also troubling the region’s leaders. Yesterday King Abdullah of Jordan said he feared three civil wars engulfing the Middle East. He said those civil wars would rage in the Palestinian Arab territories, Iraq, and Lebanon. On ABC’s “This Week,” he said, “We could possibly imagine going into 2007 and having three civil wars on our hands. . . It is time that we really take a strong step forward as part of the international community and make sure we avert the Middle East from a tremendous crisis.”

The State Department has tried to schedule an international conference for November 30 in Amman to focus on the Israel-Palestinian conflict and restarting the peace process. Over the weekend, both sides accepted a tentative cease fire.

Mr. Bush and Mr. Maliki have had a rocky relationship in recent weeks. Just before the election, Mr. Maliki called off American troops stationed outside Sadr City trying to rescue a Marine who was taken hostage. Before the November 7 mid-term elections, an aide to Mr. Maliki said that the Iraqi leader was using the president’s vulnerable political position to extract an advantage in negotiations over benchmarks for American aid to Iraq and ultimately a schedule when the troops can begin to redeploy.

The president now faces a growing rebellion at home in his own party. Key leaders in the House and Senate — such as the outgoing chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John Warner, a Republican from Virginia — have pivoted on support for the White House strategy for the war and embraced the pending recommendations from the Iraq Study Group, a commission co-chaired by former secretary of state, James Baker. Those recommendations are expected to be released in December. The White House in the last ten days has announced its own Iraq policy review and pointed to upcoming suggestions from the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Peter Pace.


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