Prime Minister al-Maliki Says US Can Leave “Any Time”

The Sunday talk shows were agog at a statement from Iraq-Namese Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. He said, “We say with full confidence we are able, God willing, to shoulder the complete responsibility in administering the security portfolio if the international forces withdrew, at any time they wish.” The PM has since backpedaled from this, but it is clear that the Green Zone government is as frustrated with their allies as the Americans are annoyed with that government’s inability to settle the political situation. Now, the PM claims that in another six months his boys can do the job. Unfortunately, he said that a year ago, too.

Shi’ite lawmaker Hassan al-Suneid, an aide to the PM, expanded on his chief’s statement. “The situation looks as if it is an experiment in an American laboratory [judging] whether we succeed or fail.” He told the AP that General David Petraeus was operating with a “purely American vision.” He worried, “There are disagreements that the strategy that Petraeus is following might succeed in confronting al Qaeda in the early period but it will leave Iraq an armed nation, an armed society and militias.”

According to CNN, “He sharply criticized the US military, saying it was committing human rights violations and embarrassing the Iraqi government through such tactics as building a wall around Baghdad's Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah and launching repeated raids on suspected Shiite militiamen in the capital's slum of Sadr City. He also criticized US overtures to Sunni groups in Anbar and Diyala provinces, encouraging former insurgents to join the fight against al Qaeda in Iraq. ‘These are gangs of killers,’ he said.”

Mr. al-Maliki himself said in a press conference over the week-end, “We are not talking about a government in a stable political environment, but one in the shadow of huge challenges. So when we talk about the presence of some negative points in the political process, that’s fairly natural.” He then pleaded for “time and effort” to enact the reforms on the benchmarks.

Not surprisingly, these statements all came right after the White House issued an interim report that suggested progress on only 8 of 18 benchmarks (and achievement of none) Washington has set for the Iraq-Namese government. Most importantly, for the Green Zone government, was where the report read “Left on their own, many ISF [Iraqi Security Force] units still tend to gravitate to old habits of sectarianism when applying the law.” Clearly, the PM was making a statement both for diplomatic purposes and for domestic consumption. It also shows that the political pressure for action from Washington is beginning to stress the alliance. That stress is likely to grow as more GOP legislators abandon the Busheviks’ policy, as the Iraq-Namese parliament takes a month long vacation to match the one America’s will take, and as the deadline for the Petraeus Report of September 15 approaches. The truth is the Green Zone government and the Bush administration have different agendas, and they will not be able to paper them over forever.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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