Gster said:

 

I imagine that it's an over-simplification, but I get the feeling they're sitting on their hands and not moving forward. The environment there is so polorized the players can't make progress with the deal making and other agreements necessary to get their Governmnet up and running.

Maybe the setting of deadline will be the impedus make progress. The real prblem may be that we crammed democracy down their throats , and they really have no idea of what it is and or how it works! Look at our history in that regard.
There definately should be more progress by this time.

 

WSClark said:

 

From what I have read, the Maliki government is as corrupt and incompetent as could be. All of this al Sadr left yada, yada, yada stuff is a smoke screen. The Shi'ite insurgency is holding fire and will return when they can. Maliki is nothing more than a puppet for al Sadr. In order to maintain his "power" he has to do his bidding. The Sunnis and Shi'a will not end this civil war unless one or the other can declare victory and take control of the Iraqi government.

The bottom line - Bush should have known all this before March 19, 2003.

Any competent Commander in Chief would have known his enemy before engaging them in warfare.

 

CF said:

 

This isn't a government: it's a faction, albeit one that represents the majority. Its abandonment of the rule of law and descent into revenge killings has been distressing to watch, but not a surprise. On this point, I defer to Riverbend, a woman in Baghdad who writes a very good blog.

"It's one thing to have militias participating in killings. This is allegedly the democracy the Americans flaunt. Is this how bloodthirsty and frightening we've become? Is this what Iraq stands for now? Executions? I'm sure the rest of the Arab countries will be impressed.

One of the most advanced countries in the world did not help to reconstruct Iraq, they didn't even help produce a decent constitution. They did, however, contribute nicely to a kangaroo court and a lynching. A lynching shall go down in history as America's biggest accomplishment in Iraq. So who's next? Who hangs for the hundreds of thousands who've died as a direct result of this war and occupation? Bush? Blair? Maliki? Jaffari? Allawi? Chalabi?

2006 has definitely been representative of Maliki and his government- killings like never before and a lynching to end it properly. Death and destruction everywhere. I'm so tired of all of this…"

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/


As for the current status of the Al Malicki client government, it just looks to CF like more of the same: don't rock the boat, and try to placate his patrons: the Americans by appearing to go along with the "surge," and the Sadrists by not disturbing the current arrangement in the government. With regard to the latter point, I'll shamelessly include Juan Cole's analysis, without comment.

"I don't see any particular evidence that it is doing so. Nor can I see any signs that the government is able to act at faster than a glacial pace. It had long ago been announced that al-Maliki would reshuffle his cabinet. But now it appears that this step, intended to streamline the government and punish cabinet ministers linked to sectarian violence, will be substantially postponed and implemented gradually. Al-Maliki, having just lost a member of his coalition-- the Islamic Virtue Party (Fadhila-- 15 seats), appears to have thought better of just firing large numbers of ministers from parties whose support he needs.

But now he has gone back to playing consensual politics negotiated with excruciating slowness. If it takes him months to so much as decide who his minister of health is, when is he going to be up to the challenge of finding a way to make peace with the Sunni Arab guerrilla movement (which he dismisses as Saddamis and 'excommunicators'-- i.e. hard line Sunnis who say Shiites are not Muslims)."

www.juancole.com

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

The al-Malaki government is, in my opinion, within 1 year of extinction. I believe al-Malaki well recognizes the need to keep "hands off" al-Sadr in order to stay in power, and reap the perqs therefrom. His government will only move begrudgingly on anything the U.S. wants/needs to happen so as to not kill the golden goose.

From a great deal of reading of various blogs, opinion pieces, etc., I have formed the opinion that this government is not particularly popular with the Iraqis as a whole; yes, there is support, perhaps lukewarm at best, from certain Shia; I don't think the Sunnis as a group trust the government; and I think the Kurds really don't care, other than to be left alone. If pressed, I believe the Kurds would side with the Arab Sunni who make up the bulk of the Sunni in Iraq, for religious reasons.

I also believe that the current Iraqi government is corrupt, by Western standards. I further believe that they, themselves, do not believe that they are corrupt, they are just doing business as is perceived as normal.

 

Gster said:

 

I read in the news that as a group, the Iraqi Kurds preferred a democracy, the Sunnis wanted a strong man ( in charge for life ) to run the government, and the Shia were split between a democracy and a religiously run government. I don't know this will ever get resolved into a democracy if the players are this divided.

If the security poblem isn't resoved quickly, the economy and the countries' infastructure won't improve, unemployment go down, etc.

Things look very bleak and the clock is ticking!

 

Jed said:

 

The administration's huge mistake was believing that a democratic government (and, more importantly, one friendly to U.S. interests) could be engineered; the same mistake the Marxists made! This administration could have learned much from the fall of communism, but it wasted it's time and effort trying to take credit for it.
Democracies develop slowly, with many mistakes and arguments. It's a process; they don't just spring forth fully formed!
Our own democracy has been developing fitfully for well over 200 years, dealing with issues such as slavery, religious freedom, robber baron capitalism, political corruption, labor rights, women's rights and civil rights, and the process continues.
You can plant the seeds of freedom, but no matter what you do, it will grow chaotically and unpredictably in the direction it grows. Too many other religious, cultural and linguistic factors influence the outcome.
The Iraqis will eventually find the solution they want and need, and the process will likely be bloody and messy. We removed the government they had and planted the seeds. We can do no more. Time to leave them alone to develop for themselves; our presence there will just exacerbate the bloodshed and guarantee a people opposed to us. Time to go!