Max Boot - Behind Maliki's Games

News Type: Opinion — Seeded on Wed Jul 23, 2008 1:13 PM EDT

Article Source: The Washington Post

politics, obama, max-boot, behind-malikis-games, prime-minister-nouri-al-malike, shiite-sectarian

There is some irony in the fact that Democrats, after years of deriding Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as a hopeless bungler and conniving Shiite sectarian, are now treating as sacrosanct his suggestion that Iraq will be ready to assume responsibility for its own security by 2010. Naturally this is because his position seems to support that of Barack Obama.

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ShaunV

This is part of a pattern for Maliki, who, though he won office and has stayed alive (literally and politically) with American support, has hardly been an unwavering friend of the United States -- at least in public. Although he was an opponent of the Saddam Hussein regime, he was not a proponent of the U.S.-led invasion. Having spent long years of exile in Syria and Iran, he has had to overcome deeply ingrained suspicions of the United States.

Keep in mind also that Maliki has no military experience and that he has been trapped in the Green Zone, relatively isolated from day-to-day life. For these reasons, he has been a consistent font of misguided predictions about how quickly U.S. forces could leave.

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1 vote

#1 - Wed Jul 23, 2008 1:16 PM EDT

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SHAUNV

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Max Boot - Behind Maliki's Games

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