Iraqi chief is no flunkie

By DALE McFEATTERS
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
By allowing the newspaper Al-Hawza to reopen, Iraq's interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, accomplished two things: He rectified a wrong -- the U.S.-led coalition shouldn't have closed it in the first place -- and he demonstrated a certain independence from the occupiers.
U.S. administrator Paul Bremer closed the newspaper, a mouthpiece for the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, on March 28 for its incitement to hate and violence. Bremer's frustration was understandable, but silencing the paper was contrary to what we stood for and it led to months of attacks on U.S. forces by al-Sadr's militias.
The coalition wisely decided that trying to arrest al-Sadr wasn't worth the bloodshed. Nonetheless, the cleric dropped out of sight for two months, finally showing himself in public at prayers last Friday.
Cleric's neutrality
Allawi can get by without al-Sadr's support, but he does need the cleric's neutrality. Al-Sadr has called Allawi's government illegitimate, but seems willing to give the new government a chance.
Allawi is shaping up as no pushover, either for the coalition or the anti-U.S. militias. Allawi said his government had approved a U.S. air strike against a site in Fallujah, said to house fighters siding with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, that killed 14 people.
The fact that U.S. military commanders cleared the air strike with Allawi suggests a new stage in relations. And Allawi must be doing something right. Shortly after the attack, a group linked to al-Zarqawi offered a $280,000 reward for killing the interim prime minister.