Former Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi calls Bush an "Utter Failure"

Khalid al-Ansary reports that Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi "has denounced the policies of President George W. Bush as an ""utter failure" that gave rise to the sectarian venom that ravaged his country... Allawi found fault with American management of Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 as well as the government of present Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi... "Yes, Bush's policies failed utterly," charged Allawi who added: "Utter failure. Failure of U.S. domestic and foreign policy, including fighting terrorism and economic policy. His insistence on names like 'democracy' and 'open elections', without giving attention to political stability, was a big mistake. It cast shadows on Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Egypt, and I believe this will be remembered in history as President Bush's policy," Allawi claimed. Allawi also attacked the current Maliki government as demonstrating "weak performance, erected upon political quotas, major government corruption and infiltrated state agencies,.. "Four years passed ... and they can't build the police, army, national institutions. Ending Saddam's regime was essential, but replacing the Saddam regime with extreme chaos was not right,.. I did not imagine the political process would eat itself from inside or that it would abandon the rule of law and establish political sectarianism." The Allawi interview appeared Saturday in the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat." I guess Allawi could be categorized as a strong critic of Maliki and Bush.