Bush message read by Iraqi PM?

Iraq's new prime minister, Ibrahim Jaafari, gave a speech Monday Juan Cole says caused a ``major stir''

Cole says the speech ``seemed to back off the policy of debaathification or the exclusion from high office of former Baath civilian and military officials,'' and that, ``Some Shiite parlimantarians were furious.''

Cole describes the ``pressure'' Jaafari has been under, ``to find ways of bringing the Sunni Arabs into the government.''

Here is where I would like to see Juan Cole dig a little deeper. He repeats the conventional wisdom that, ``Most seasoned and capable Sunni Arab leaders, whether civilian or military, had been Baath Party members or had some close connection to the party.'' A question for which I would like an answer, though, is how are these ``seasoned and capable'' ex-Baathists being used by the Americans in their chain of command? Please see this Deep Blade post, US-sponsored militias and death squads in Iraq, for a discussion of what seems to be happening and a link to an important article on the subject by A.K. Gupta.

Another important question is, did Rumsfeld's and Bush's orders to ``not politicize your military'' from last month get through to Jaafari? Is that why Jaafari caused this ``major stir''??