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Length: 4:25
JOHN KING:
And to our viewers, you're in THE SITUATION ROOM,
where new pictures and information are arriving all
the time. Standing by, CNN reporters across the
United States and around the world. Happening now...
KING: And, while President Bush prepares for this
summit, his summit partner is struggling just to hold
on to power. Does a Shiite leader now hold the real
power in Iraq?
Correspondent Michael Ware joins us now from Baghdad.
Michael, Muqtada al-Sadr has played his card,
essentially warning Prime Minister Maliki, "go meet
with Mr. Bush, and we will take down your
government." Mr. Maliki doesn't have any good choices
here, does he?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely not.
I mean, if ever there was a political leader between
a rock and a hard place, it's Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki. Now, remember, this is a politician who,
on his own, has no popular base, no constituency.
And, unlike everyone else involved in this
government, he lacks the true currency of political
power in this country, and that is an armed militia.
So, what's propping him up? He's relying principally
on American support to keep him where he is, and try
to develop a popular base for him.
In the meantime, in the realpolitik of the Iraqi
dynamic, he had to turn to the powerful political
faction and the even mightier militia faction loyal
to anti-American rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
At the end of the day, it was Muqtada's support that
saw him land in the prime minister's chair. Now we're
seeing these two opposing interests that he draws
upon -- in fact, vehement enemies -- coming to a
head. I mean, he's due to meet with President George
W. Bush next week, yet, we're hearing one of
Muqtada's leading politicians warn that if the Shia
population does not see immediate improvement, then
if he meets with what they call the criminal Bush,
they will suspend involvement in this parliament.
He's a man left with very few choices -- John.
KING: And, Michael, what's the end goal of al-Sadr's
power play? Is there a scenario in Iraq that shows
Mr. al-Sadr perhaps wanting to be the next leader?
WARE: For Muqtada to be able to maneuver into a
position like that means that a lot of carnage would
have had to have taken place to remove other
obstacles in his path, primarily, the SCIRI political
organization, and its very well-equipped, very
well-trained, very experienced and disciplined Badr
militia.
So, there's still a lot of obstacles in his way,
before we see any kind of development like that. And
a lot of blood would have to flow before we come to
that -- John.
KING: Michael, you have been there for some time. You
have seen the worst. Put the past 24 hours into
context for us.
WARE: Well, John, in one sense, this is just another
day in Baghdad. As spectacular as it was, the litany
of death and attack and agony in this country is a
daily occurrence. I mean, this was a stunning and
atrocious slaughter.
I mean, this was a Thanksgiving Day massacre. But it
was just one moment of punctuation in a long,
evolving chapter of what is essentially a civil war.
We have seen mass strikes like this before. This is
the largest. It is not on its own. It's not in
isolation. And, I dare say, there are others to
follow.
In the meantime, we see the institutionalization of
Shia death squads striking back at the Sunni
community, men showing up in legitimate government
uniforms, driven by legitimate government vehicles at
Sunni homes at night, hauling men off, never to be
seen again.
So, this is just separate faces of a long, ugly
continuum of civil war.
KING: Michael Ware for us in Baghdad -- Michael,
thank you very much.
WARE: Thank you, John.