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"Top officials are scrambling to save the U.S. [[exit strategy]] after concluding that Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric, [[Grand Ayatollah Ali al Husseini al Sistani]], is unlikely to drop his demand for elections for an interim assembly that would choose an interim government by June 30. ... [[L. Paul Bremer]] would then hand over power to the interim government."
Although President Bush "in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, insisted that an insurgency against the U.S. occupation, conducted primarily by minority Sunni Muslims who enjoyed power under [[Saddam Hussein]], 'will fail, and the Iraqi people will live in freedom,' .... [he] didn't directly address the crisis over the Shiites' political demands."
"One option being informally discussed is to delay the transfer of power until later in 2004, which might give the United Nations time to organize some sort of elections, said one official. ... But that is almost certain to be opposed by White House political aides who want the occupation over and many U.S. troops gone by this summer to bolster Bush's re-election chances, the official said. ... 'It's all politics right now,' he said."
