Posted on 08/07/2007 6:53:27 PM PDT by humint
As Iraqis queue miserably for food and water, or swelter in homes and hospitals without electricity, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's coalition government is collapsing around him.
The latest boycott -- by four ministers from a non-sectarian party -- brought to 17 the number of members of the Shiite-led coalition to have walked out, tendered their resignations or withdrawn from cabinet meetings.
Hopes that the so-called national unity coalition can be saved now depend on the senior leadership of the rival parties cutting a new power-sharing deal that can convince the bitter Sunni minority to return to the fold.
But Maliki further alienated himself from his Sunni political opponents -- whose inclusion in government the Americans see as crucial to ending Iraq's civil conflicts -- by accusing them of being insincere and irresponsible.
"The withdrawal from the government is evidence of irresponsibility, because they don't have anything other than withdrawal either in the parliament or in the government," the Shiite premier said.
His comments were made in an interview with Iran's state Arabic language television channel Al-Alam, recorded on Monday and shown on its website.
"All this makes us believe that it is a sign of their lack of credibility and lack of sincerity in the political process, or a sign of a different agenda which is contrary to the political agenda we currently have," he added.
Since the US-led invasion of March 2003, Iraq has plunged into an abyss of overlapping civil conflicts that have divided its rival religious and ethnic communities, and left tens of thousands of civilians dead.
Last year's formation of an elected government of national unity held out the promise of reconciliation, but Maliki's rule has been undermined by bitter sectarian rivalries both within and outside his fragile coalition.
"The government cannot survive all these defections," said Joost Hiltermann, the chief Iraq expert at the International Crisis Group think tank, after the secular Iraqi National List said its four ministers are boycotting cabinet.
"The Shiites and the Kurds don't want to cede power to people they don't trust. But if they don't, there won't be reconciliation. Then all we can look forward to is civil war," he told AFP by telephone from Amman.
Sheikh Khalaf al-Ilayan, a senior lawmaker in the National Concord Front that resigned on August 1, said the government has failed on every level.
"The government has failed because it has failed to stick to its political obligations to its members. As so many have withdrawn, the government has no right to make decisions now," he said.
Washington has voiced growing impatience with the political stalemate, which could jeopardise efforts to reconcile the warring factions and undermine the work of 155,000 American troops to end the conflict.
Shiite parties are suspicious of Sunni leaders whose minority sect dominated political power under executed former dictator Saddam Hussein and accuse them of supporting violent insurgent groups.
Sunni leaders accuse the Shiite parties of ties with powerful neighbour Iran and condemn their alleged complicity with Shiite militias.
But in the unbearable heat of Iraq, where temperatures frequently reach 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in summer, many ordinary people are more frustrated with the lack of basic services than political squabbling.
Last week, a report by Stuart Bowen, the US chief inspector of Iraqi reconstruction, painted a damning picture of government failure, and described the effects of corruption as being akin to a "second insurgency".
Baghdad residents say they are sleeping on hard floors or roofs, suffering interminably without fans or air-conditioning, being forced to buy bottled water or drink contaminated water from purification plants without power.
One of the lucky ones with a job in a country where unemployment stands at well over 50 percent, Yasser Ghazi said he still can't afford to operate a generator to fill the gaps between the paltry few hours of electricity a day.
"My sister is pregnant. I sent her with my mother, an old woman, to Syria to give birth because there's no electricity or clean water. There's not even a good hospital," said Ghazi, who works for a private contracting company.
"I'm engaged but I've been delaying my wedding for months because of the heat. I don't want to start the first day of my new life with my wife in the heat and the dark, sweating," he said.
It is really too bad that Allawi isn’t still in charge...
Now that the Surge is working, AL Qaeda is dying, the Sunni Arabs by large stopped their insurgency, the treasonous liberal media is focusing on the political aspect of the country just to bring negative news. From now on this will be the new mantra of the traitors among us, focus on the negative political aspect and what the Iraqi did and did not achieved in the Parliament and in the government.
Hold up? I thought we were suppose to be all upset because they were on vacation all this month.
So would the Anti American propagndists make up their mind what the spin line is suppose to be?
? - Free Republic is a political forum. The failure of the Iraqi parliamentarians to pass good legislation is important. It would be treasonous to ignore it.
“It is really too bad that Allawi isn’t still in charge...”
It’s also too bad we didn’t leave in 2004 after the job was done.
Who gives orders about what subjects to be upset about? Political Paralysis = Vacation... now, how do you feel about that?
Are you upset that Al Qaeda is defeated in Iraq? Are you sad that we are winning? I know you are.
Would you consider it plagiarisms if every article written about Iraq from this day forward contained your 42 word sentence? I rather journalists admit they are all plagiarists than charge them all with treason. Or maybe we could leave the charge of treason to Adam Yahiye Gadahn.
Why are you on this Patriotic forum that wants America to win and defeat islamic terrorism? Try DU or Daily Kos they would love your defeatist attitude.
When you give aid and comfort to the enemy by spreading defeatism that is treason ( I do not mean you).
Gosh, gee! Obviously these poor folks had air conditioning, clean water and comfortable beds for the last 10,000 years, even under saddam! Only since the Americans came have they lost the ac, water and freedom. Need I add a /sarc tag?
BTW wonder how things are up north? The reason that you don't hear much about the kurds is because it works up there!
Reminds me of Limbaugh’s ‘drive-by-media’ when one post an Article with no comment. If you wish to defend it Humint, fine, but that is my opinion.
“From now on this will be the new mantra of the traitors among us”
I want your OPUS. Don’t PM me, and don’t ask me to be reasonable. This allows you to leave with some dignity and pride.
I do not understand what you you mean.
It means I want you to say your leaving and then send Jim Robinson a ping and ask him to close your account. It’s not complicated at all. Short, sweet, and to the point.
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