Former Iraqi PM: Bush an 'Utter Failure'

Allawi had been appointed by US after Saddam's fall
By Wesley Oliver,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 3, 2009 4:20 PM CST
Former Iraqi PM: Bush an 'Utter Failure'
Former Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi denounced the policies of President George W. Bush as an "utter failure" that gave rise to the sectarian venom that ravaged his country.   (AP Photo/Nader Daoud)

The Iraqi prime minister installed by Washington after the fall of Saddam Hussein has blasted President Bush’s policies as an “utter failure,” Reuters reports. In an interview with an Arab newspaper, Iyad Allawi said Bush’s “insistence on names like ‘democracy’ and ‘open elections,’ without giving attention to political stability, was a big mistake” that prompted ruinous sectarian violence.

"Yes, Bush's policies failed utterly," said Allawi. "Failure of US domestic and foreign policy, including fighting terrorism and economic policy." He also blasted Iraq’s current PM for running a government characterized by “weak performance" and corruption. “Four years passed and they can't build the police, army, national institutions.” (More Iyad Allawi stories.)

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