About-Face in Iraq

A stepped-up bombing campaign. A speedier plan for handing off power. As the body count mounts, Team Bush tries a new tack

By Michael Hirsh, Rod Nordland and Mark Hosenball
NEWSWEEK

Nov. 24 issue — Paul Bremer’s job sounds straightforward, at least. It is to transform Iraq from a dangerous muddle into a democratic model. But last week the dapper career diplomat got a faceful of Iraqi democracy, laced with a lot of smoke and cordite, from the very Governing Council he created and once all but ignored. And now the future looks anything but straightforward.

WHILE AN ANTI-AMERICAN insurgency raged out of control, the 24 council members were telling him they were utterly stalemated on how to write a constitution, which the Bush administration insisted would be the first step in doing democracy “right” (as one U.S. official put it). Majority Shiites, knowing they represent 60 percent of the country, insisted on direct election of delegates, citing a fatwa to that effect from their senior religious figure, Ayatollah Ali Sistani. Minority Sunnis, the elite group that produced Saddam Hussein, didn’t want a direct vote that might cost them power. So no constitution for the moment. And there would be more delays—and more bloodshed—if Bremer didn’t give.

About-Face in Iraq

"Quagmire" continues to be the operative word.