Bob:
1. Iyad Alawi has been living in exile for years and years. No, he could not be said to have the support of the Iraqi people, at least so far as I know. He's a former Baathist, member of the hated IGC and founder of the Iraqi National Accord, the Chalabi-like outfit which fed fake "evidence" to British intelligence during the run-up to the war.
2. During the past few months, there have been 100s of different stories floating around. Rumsfeld says on thing, Powell says another, Bremer says another, then Powell changes his story, some government official says another thing, a press release says a third thing, then Powell changes his story again etc etc.
From what I can figure, it has finally been decided that the Iraqi "government" will not have any say in US military operations.
3. I doubt that 150,000 US troops would just up and leave because the Iraqis said so, taking their permanent bases with them. But thats a theoretical scenario only. Alawi has about as much chance of asking US troops to leave as Bremer did. If the fact that 98% of Iraqis want US troops is not a clear enough message, I don't know what it. Its not like the desires of the Iraqi people is unclear.
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It just that the whole "full sovereignty" thing pisses me off. Full means complete, 100%, but its obvious even to the most devout Bush supporters that its not even close to that. Sort of like the "end of the war" that Bush declared on the aircraft carrier. Its just words, they're not backed up by reality.
edit:
Allawi on Wikipedia.
