BUSH JUST WANTS TO BE LOVED

So Bush's selection criteria for key Iraq government positions is the willingness of the candidate to thank America.

Well, let's be real, the Iraq war is a cornerstone of the George W. Bush brand. You thank America for its great service to Iraq, you're thanking Dubya. He understands that and is exploiting it.

In Bremer's account, the President was seriously interested in one issue: whether the leaders of the government that followed the CPA would publicly thank the United States. But there is no evidence that he cared about the specific questions that counted: Would the new prime minister have a broad base of support? Would he be able to bridge Iraq's ethnic divisions? What political values should he have? Instead, Bush had only one demand: "It's important to have someone who's willing to stand up and thank the American people for their sacrifice in liberating Iraq." According to Bremer, he came back to this single point three times in the same meeting. Similarly, Ghazi al-Yawar, an obscure Sunni Arab businessman, became Bush's candidate for president of Iraq's interim government because, as Bremer reports, Bush had "been favorably impressed with his open thanks to the Coalition."