The Prime Minister: How Tough Will He Get?

It's hard to picture Iyad Allawi as a strongman. Iraq's interim Prime Minister has a couple of chins below a face that wears an expression of permanent sleep deprivation. With his rumpled suits, ill-tucked shirts and reading glasses perched low on the nose, he comes across more a distracted accountant than a political powerhouse.

But as the new Prime Minister of a country at war with itself, Allawi knows he has to appear resolute. He has already shown a willingness to mix things up with his U.S. patrons and the insurgents. He said last week that outgoing U.S. administrator L....

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