Our Puppets (And Their Puppetmasters)

Heck of a job, Maliki!

By Sami Moubayed
DAMASCUS - This Friday marks exactly the 150th day of Nuri al-Maliki's tenure as prime minister of Iraq. Usually in democracies, the performance of a prime minister and his government is measured by the first 100 days in office. Even with the extra 50 days, Maliki has failed completely to bring security to Iraq.

He has failed to disarm the militias. And he has failed to bring about economic reforms, in addition to being unable to combat unemployment or prevent the immigration of Iraqi youth. The Ministry of Interior under Maliki is swarming with armed Shi'ite militias, just as it was under his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

The Iraqi police have been infiltrated by militiamen, who are using official equipment and funds to kill other Iraqis in the Iraqi Army, controlled by the Sunnis. Death squads roam the streets, killing over 100 Iraqis per day. Under Maliki, the death toll has risen to over 3,000 Iraqis killed per month. On the anniversary of his 150th day in power, 50 people were killed in Mosul, Kirkuk and Baquba, and another 100 were wounded, while 33 unidentified bodies - all shot in the head, were found in Baghdad. Earlier in the week, 60 beheaded bodies were found.

Under Maliki, al-Qaeda has not been weakened by the death of its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. On the contrary, this month the group declared an Islamic republic in Iraq, proving that, if anything, it is not weaker but more determined to seize power and create a Taliban-like regime.

Under Maliki, according to a report in the London-based daily Al-Hayat, Iraqi men are carving tattoos on their bodies, with their home address and telephone number. This is so that if they are killed, mutilated or beheaded, police would be able to identify their bodies and send them back to their families for burial.

Although unconfirmed, some claim that the abundance of suicide bombers in Iraq under Maliki is a result of a trick carried out by the militias and the Ministry of Interior on ordinary Iraqi citizens. They offer young men well-paying, non-military jobs, which are quickly snapped up due to the terrible economic conditions, with no questions asked. While on duty, they are sent in a car to a certain location and told to call a certain person when they get there. The employee does not realize that his mobile phone is connected to a hidden car bomb. When he makes the call, his car explodes.

Despite the horrendous state of the country, US President George W Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been full of praise for Maliki. For his part, Maliki has been busy lately, making a high-profile visit to Najaf on Wednesday and meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and the young cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Sistani, the wise man of Iraqi politics, had distanced himself from the political arena earlier last month, appalled by the fact that he was being overshadowed by younger, radical, military oriented leaders like Muqtada.

While Sistani stepped in to end two confrontations between Shi'ite insurgents and the Americans in 2004, he no longer can get the armed groups to lay down their arms, or think twice before gunning down an Iraqi Sunni. Civil war has erupted, and men like Muqtada who offer arms, money and protection gain larger audiences than Sistani, who has nothing for his visitors except words of wisdom on co-existence and phrases from the Holy Koran.

Sistani is greatly disturbed that politicians do not call on him anymore, and when they do, they no longer listen to what he has to say. Maliki's meeting him for consultation, then rushing out to meet Muqtada, only adds to Sistani's belief that his word is no longer final in Shi'ite politics.

It proves that to get things done, the prime minister needs the consent of Muqtada, the militia leader who helped bring him to power in May. Muqtada, after all, shares identical views with Maliki over the partitioning of Iraq, which both oppose, as well as on Iranian-Iraqi relations. Although Maliki has pledged to clamp down on the militias, he has done nothing to control, or even curb, the powers of the Mehdi Army that is run by Muqtada.

On Monday, government troops arrested one of Muqtada's top aides, Sheikh Mazen al-Saadi. This led to large demonstrations of 2,000 Muqtada loyalists in Baghdad, forcing authorities to immediately order his release, making the prime minister look silly. The arrest and rapid release of Saadi demonstrates just how powerful Muqtada really is and how unable - or unwilling - Maliki is to cross him.

It was Muqtada's support, after all, that brought Maliki to power and it was Muqtada's signal that ended the reign of Jaafari. Maliki's visit to Muqtada shortly after Saadi's release raises speculation that the purpose of the Najaf trip might have been to apologize for detaining such a senior Muqtada loyalist. It also gives credibility to the prime minister among hardline Shi'ites to have his picture taken with Muqtada, a man viewed as a Shi'ite nationalist and anti-American to the bone. Such publicity stunts greatly legitimize Muqtada as well, portraying him as a protege of the Iraqi government.

It also gives him political ammunition to use against his opponents in the Shi'ite community, mainly the Iran-backed Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). Instead of objecting to the prime minister's alliance with the rebel Muqtada, the United States is in fact encouraging Maliki to solidify his ties to him. As long as he has the backing of the cleric, the Americans believe, Maliki will remain legitimate in the eyes of ordinary Shi'ites.

On Wednesday, White House spokesman Tony Snow said that that the US hoped Muqtada would cooperate with the Maliki government and play a constructive role in Iraq. This was shocking for Iraqi observers, because of Muqtada's anti-American history. Asked whether Muqtada was an enemy or ally of the US - or something else - Snow replied, from aboard Air Force One with President George W Bush, that Muqtada was "a factor in Iraq. He is somebody who obviously has adherents, and the most important thing, I think, if Muqtada al-Sadr wants to play a constructive role, is to make sure to cooperate with Prime Minister Maliki in dealing with militias."

Meanwhile, sources close to the premier told al-Hayat that Maliki was planning to "purify the Ministry of Defense" of sectarian elements. Meaning, he wants to disarm the Sunni militias who are affiliated with the ministry, so that they do not obstruct the agenda of the Shi'ite militias of the Ministry of Interior.

Al-Hayat added that Maliki had "began steps towards ridding himself from the militias". If this proves to be correct, then Maliki is taking steps that are too little, too late. Abdul Jalil Khalaf, an officer in Rasafa, explains to al-Hayat that the Iraqi Army is facing "great embarrassment" while carrying out its duties in Baghdad because it is being confronted by the police, who work for the Ministry of the Interior and are infiltrated by the Badr Organization, an Iran-backed militia headed by Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim and the SCIRI.

Khalaf adds that "residents in some districts complain to us that the police are requesting the assistance of the militias when exposed to attack". He points out that the army "refuses to interfere in many critical situations, such as sectarian confrontation, for fear of being accused of sectarianism or bias to one party or another".

Khalaf states that "the army is more acceptable to the Iraqi street than the police force because of the accusations from some parliamentary and governmental groups who say that the police are supporting the militias and are involved with the death squads". The officers in the army are often attacked by militiamen wearing police uniforms and driving cars from the Ministry of the Interior. Missiles are fired at Iraqi soldiers from districts supposedly under control of the ministry.

With all of this going on in Iraq, it is not surprising that there is a lot of talk about a coup being planned to oust Maliki. Rumor has it that the newly created Iraqi Army, along with former officers in Saddam Hussein's forces, will stage a coup to topple Maliki and replace him with a strong prime minister who is able to clamp down on the militias.

This prime minister would be pro-American, owing no loyalty to the militias as Maliki or Jaafari did. The name circulating is former prime minister Iyad Allawi. Rumors add that the US would initially denounce the coup in lip-service to democracy, but eventually cooperate with the new regime because it would bring security to Baghdad.

It all just shows how impatient everybody is with Maliki. The coup scenario is being actively discussed by Iraqis - almost as if they actually want it to happen.

Original article posted here.