A
Nail In Maliki Government's Coffin?
By Ali al-Fadhily
03 August, 2007
Inter Press Service
BAGHDAD, Aug 3 (IPS)
- The recent resignations of Iraq's Army Chief of Staff and
several of his council military leaders underscore a continuing decomposition
of Iraq's U.S.-backed government.
Everybody in Iraq -- politicians,
political analysts, poets, scientists, porters –
seems to agree that the U.S.-backed Iraqi government headed by Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki is a total failure.
Security, basic services,
and all measurable levels of Iraq's infrastructure are worse now than
under the rule of Saddam Hussein. Nevertheless, the U.S., Britain and
Iran all continue to support this government.
"Politicians in this
country are the best at serving their personal interests, and that is
what has kept al-Maliki in power," Amjad Hussein, an Iraqi journalist
in Baghdad told IPS. "Wherever I go in Iraq, people complain of
the very bad living conditions caused by the wrong policies of this
government. Even those who voted for the (Shia) Iraqi coalition bite
their fingers in regret for the support they gave to this group of people
who have led the country into darkness."
Withdrawals from the government
by individual ministers and by political groups was the first sign of
the end of al-Maliki's political life, but the U.S. government has remained
insistent on keeping al-Maliki at the top of Iraq's leadership.
"I strongly believe
that it was American pressure on the (Sunni) al-Tawafuq Sunni group
that stopped them from withdrawal from the government," a senior
member of al-Tawafuq told IPS on condition of anonymity. "I preferred
to clear my conscience and so I have decided to end my political activities.
I am looking for a way to take my family across the border for their
safety. It is a sin to be a politician in Iraq nowadays."
On Aug. 1 Iraq's largest
Sunni Arab political bloc, the Accordance Front, announced its withdrawal
from the splintering government, dealing another huge blow to al-Maliki's
hopes of maintaining a unity government.
The Front has 44 of parliament's
275 seats, and its withdrawal from the 14-month-old government is the
second such action by a faction. Five ministers loyal to Shia cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr quit the government in April to protest al-Maliki's
reluctance to announce a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces
from Iraq.
One of the biggest blows
to al-Maliki has come from the Iraqi army after Major General Babaker
Zebari, a Kurd who was army chief of staff, resigned on Jul. 31 to leave
for Kurdish controlled northern Iraq. The resignation of Maj. Gen Zebari
was followed by the resignation of nine other generals in protest against
"al-Maliki's interference with their professional work, and the
weakness of the defence minister."
According to some reports
al-Maliki rejected Zebari's resignation. The regional president of Iraqi
Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, will address the issue with al-Maliki during
an upcoming meeting in Baghdad.
"Only those who have
strong ties with Iran will stay with al-Maliki," one of the nine
officers told a source close to IPS. "We would rather be assassinated
by death squads than be part of this government that insists on being
sectarian and Iranian by all measures."
Prime Minister Maliki is
secretary general of the al-Dawa Party, and was in exile in Iran after
leading insurgent groups against former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
Relations between Maliki
and U.S. officials have also collapsed. Last weekend the Daily Telegraph
in London reported that relations between the top U.S. general in Iraq,
General David Petraeus, and al-Maliki are so bad that the Iraqi leader
made a direct appeal U.S. President to George Bush for removal of Petraeus.
An Iraqi source said Maliki
made the appeal to Bush through a video conference for Petraeus's military
strategy of arming Sunni tribal fighters to battle al-Qaeda to be abandoned.
"He told Bush that if
Petraeus continues, he would arm Shia militias," the official said.
"Bush told Maliki to calm down."
Petraeus's spokesman Col.
Steve Boylan denied these reports, but evidence suggests that Maliki
has been allowing Shia militias to arm themselves and control vast areas
of Iraq for some time now.
A member of al-Maliki's al-Dawa
Party, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS that al-Maliki's
opponent, former prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, is leading a revolt
against him and that al-Maliki is no longer the party's favourite.
"This American and Iranian
made government in Baghdad was brought to power for known reasons,"
Sheikh Ali Mansoor, a member of the Sunni anti-occupation group the
Association of Muslim Scholars told IPS. "They brought in al-Maliki
in order to pass laws that serve American interests, and to guarantee
their long-term stay in Iraq. Now he is working for Iran, and Americans
are losing Iraq once and for all."
Maliki came to be Prime Minister
after political pressure from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
and former British foreign secretary Jack Straw forced former al-Jaafari
to resign.
"They must change the
faces again, but who could the replacement be," Dr. Lukman Salim,
a physician from Baghdad told IPS. "Americans and Iranians will
definitely employ someone who is worse for Iraqis and better for them."
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