Divide and Conquer
Nouri al-Maliki plays to the American left, with the idea that all his Sadr-loving forces need are more American guns, and the Yanks can go home. Times of London:
“If we succeed in implementing the agreement between us to speed up the equipping and providing weapons to our military forces, I think that within three to six months our need for American troops will dramatically go down. That is on condition that there are real, strong efforts to support our military forces and equipping and arming them.”
… Although Mr al-Maliki’s tone was measured throughout, he is clearly irritated at US criticism that he has failed to curb Shia militias. Robert Gates, the new US Defence Secretary, said that Mr al-Maliki could lose his job if he failed to stop communal bloodshed and Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, gave a warning that he was living on “borrowed time” …
… Mr al-Maliki remarked acidly: “Certain officials are going through a crisis. Secretary Rice is expressing her own point of view if she thinks that the Government is on borrowed time, whether it is borrowed time for the Iraqi Government or American Administration. I don’t think we are on borrowed time.”
He added: “I wish that we could receive strong messages of support from the US so we don’t give some boost to the terrorists and make them feel that they might have achieved success. I believe that such statements give moral boosts to the terrorists and push them towards making an extra effort and making them believe that they have defeated the American Administration, but I can tell you that they haven’t defeated the Iraqi Government.”
This is patently absurd, as he has been unwilling to use Iraqi forces or allow U.S. forces to do what needs to be done, and all assessments agree that Iraqi forces are not up to it on their own.
Al-Maliki, unhappy with Bush’s new aggressive policy and being told flat out he is not long for power, is playing to the Dem Cong’s eagerness to abandon Iraq. Just give them more guns, which al-Sadr can use to slaughter Sunnis.
Meanwhile, some Mahdi Army members have been arrested. Because you have to make it look good. If they had done this in Sadr City rather than the heavily Shiite south it might be more impressive :
He rejected the accusation that his Government was “lenient” with Shia militias, saying 400 al-Mahdi Army members had been arrested in recent days, in crackdowns in southern towns such as Karbala, Samawa, Diwaniya and al-Nasiriya.
And he insisted that he was prepared to fulfil his promises to Washington and confront the militias of Shia parties within his coalition, including Moqtada al-Sadr’s widely feared al-Mahdi Army. He conceded that some “sectarian” acts were being perpetrated. But he said there would not be a civil war because Sunni and Shia had lived in peace for many years.
Captain Ed and some US officials see this as a positive development and a hopeful sign. I see it as more distractionary crap. A shiny object to bedazzle the gullible.
Dean’s buying it. Chalk one up for al-Maliki.
A couple more in al-Maliki’s corner. The Moderate Voice: If al-Maliki wants us out, we have to go. Ditto the News Pig. I’m guessing there are several million Iraqi Sunni Arabs and Kurds and their representatives in parliament who might differ. Not to mention a bunch of Shiites and their ministerswho are not al-Sadr fans.
Hot Air has a report from Michelle’s road companion in Iraq, Brian Preston.
Topics: Uncategorized
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:03 am on Thursday, January 18, 2007
4 Responses to “Divide and Conquer”
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January 18th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Give him enough rope and he will hang himself.
January 18th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
[...] take on al-Maliki. Posted on January 18, 2007 | Permalink | Categories Iraq | | View blog reactions “>Comment #1 “>Gray said, January 18, 2007 at 6:02 am “Condoleezza Rice, the Secretaryof State, gave a warning that he was living on “borrowed time” and that American patience was running out.” [...]
January 18th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Garbage.
The American warfghters have already been too sidelined from actively pursuing and defeating the enemies (both Iraqi and American, but not in that order). And we are to believe that a more agressively disengaged US military would net less violence, fewer attacks and fewer dead Iraqis and American troops?
Now, couple this with his standing invitation to Iranian ‘diplomats’ seeking to ‘forge a relationship with Iraq.’ That they are Qods Force operators feeding all sides of mayhem is no matter. They have papers, so mind you nothing.
That an Iraqi Kurd (!!) - Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari - is demanding of the US and guaranteeing to Iran the release of the 5 Qods operators nabbed in Irbil just adds to the colorful collage of self-destruction currrently afoot within the elected Iraqi government.
But such is the nature of events when democracy precedes liberty, which itself can only be the by-product of security. And security requires the violent destruction of those currently engaged who know no other language. Period.
Sound complicated? It’s not.
We’ve forgotten to fight the war, wrapping our reluctance in the platitudes of an Iraqi democracy wich serves only as a thin verneer to obscure the absence of liberty.
What an Iraqi Prime Minister should be asking is whether or not Ethiopia will make two divisions available for hire. Instead, we see Qods Force deployment via free invitation.
January 18th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
Did you turn off trackbacks? I excerpted and linked at http://www.smalltownveteran.net/bills_bites/2007/01/almaliki_blames.html