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TONY HARRIS: OK, let's go
to Michael Ware. He is in Baghdad.
Michael, I take it you heard the president just a few
moments ago, correct?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Tony.
HARRIS: OK, Michael. Let's start with the support,
lack of support, however we're defining the support,
from the president for the Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki. Here's a bite from the president a short
time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRES. OF THE UNITED STATES: Prime
Minister Maliki is a good guy, a good man with a
difficult job, and I support him. And it's not up to
the politicians in Washington D.C. to say whether he
will remain in his position. That is up to the Iraqi
people who now live in a democracy and not a
dictatorship.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Michael, do you want to start on this? Do you
need a question, or do you just want to respond?
WARE: Well, what I can tell you, Tony, is it is
rather striking that the president says this today
about Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, because everyone
from the president to the U.S. ambassador of late has
been prodding and criticizing the prime minister of
Iraq. So this seems to be a very rapid turnaround.
I mean, the fundamental problem is that what the U.S.
senators have said about Prime Minister Maliki, that
he's not delivering, is quite simply true. But the
answer is simple. Why? The prime minister has no
power. America has invested everything in a guy who
has absolutely no real control over what's happening
within his government. Of his 37-member cabinet, 17
are boycotting his government or just not showing up.
And in a government where power vests in those who
control militia forces, this is a man without a
militia. So really, Maliki can't deliver.
HARRIS: Michael, this goes nowhere, this surge goes
nowhere if you can't get some kind of political
reconciliation. It goes nowhere, whether it's
162,000, whether it's 180,000. It goes nowhere.
WARE: Right. Remember this, if America pulls out then
the moral burden on America as a nation will be
enormous for the bloodletting that will follow and
for the destabilization of this entire region and the
strengthening of al Qaeda and other Islamists.
But nonetheless, there are those here -- no one
questions that democracy as a model is something to
pursue. But what U.S. commanders and diplomats here
on the ground are saying is that, "maybe we have
bungled the execution of that mission so badly that
now we need to stop and reconsider whether Malaki or
his entire government are really the way to go."
Because, to be honest, Iran has much more influence
with this government than America does, that's for
sure. So really, a lot of people are finding it much
harder to support the Maliki government.
HARRIS: CNN's Michael Ware for us in Baghdad.
Michael, appreciate it. Thank you.