Tag: Iraq
The scruffily bearded guy gets ready to sing
Maliki and Allawi have at long last apparently cut a deal putting Allawi’s people in as speaker of the parliament and as head of a committee overseeing national security (but is this the old, ineffective one, or a new one?). This is the deal Reidar Visser proposed several days ago (Iraq leaders reach deWhy Iraqiyya Should Accept the Speakership « Iraq and Gulf Analysis). Kudos to Reidar!
Hard to believe this saga is at an end until we see a list of ministers approved in parliament. Is Moqtada al Sadr in or not? In where? What is the overall Iraqiyya role? What is Allawi’s specific role? Lots of devilish details before it is possible to judge what this all means.
Share this, I'll really appreciate it:
Walt v. Bush
A healthy reminder of where we’ve been, but then it is hard to credit Walt’s remark that Obama’s “foreign policy…looks surprising[ly] like George W. Bush’s.”
Delusion Points – By Stephen M. Walt | Foreign Policy.
Share this, I'll really appreciate it:
Kurdish unity frays
The reform-minded Gorran (Change) movement has defected with its eight seats from the broader 58-seat Kurdish coalition in the Iraqi parliament. This will weaken the Kurdish position only marginally for the moment, but it introduces one more moving part in an already complicated government formation process.
Not clear yet whether Gorran is moving towards Allawi or towards Maliki–the defection was caused by controversy over Kurdistan’s electoral law, not over who should be prime minister in Baghdad. But I’ll bet the Americans are pushing hard for Change to move towards Allawi.
Share this, I'll really appreciate it:
Kurds leaning towards Maliki
The Baghdad rumor mill today is putting the Kurds in Maliki’s camp, which would put him over the top arithmetically. He would still need to harvest a few Iraqiyya votes for appearances’ sake, but that shouldn’t be impossible, and it might not take long.
This is not good news for Washington, which preferred a government built on a Maliki/Allawi foundation. The one that seems to be emerging is built on a Maliki/Sadrist foundation, which is likely to be friendlier to Tehran and less able to keep disgruntled Sunnis inside the political process.
But it’s not over until the scruffily bearded guy sings. Is this just one more turn in the eight-month process, or is this the finale?
Share this, I'll really appreciate it:
T.X. makes you wince
His piece on contractors is first-rate: http://www.ndu.edu/inss/news.cfm?action=view&id=52
Share this, I'll really appreciate it:
Not so upbeat over on L street
Our friends at the Washington Institute are certainly sounding worried about Iraq: http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=3262
RSS - Posts
