An uncomfortable looking visage on Iraqi state TV, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki broadcast a call for “national unity” and an end to sectarian tensions in the face of a growing war.
It’s clear his heart wasn’t in it, and just a few hours prior Maliki was railing against neighboring Saudi Arabia, accusing them of backing “genocide” in Iraq before making a show of standing with Sunni and Kurdish politicians in front of the camera.
Behind the scenes, its business as usual, and the indications are that even as his country gets torn to bits the prime minister is working on further centralization of power with himself.
It’s not surprising. After all, the growing disquiet about the military advance has many believing replacing Maliki with a consensus-builder is vital, and the long-time PM clearly doesn’t plan on leaving without a fight.
We may stop giving advice. It has not worked well. In fact, the system we imposed on Iraq was designed to get us back into Iraq, as it insured ethnic and religious divisions, dismantled Iraqi army, allowed for idiotic game-card revenge upon officials of former regime, and then, all the abused Sunni's were collected by Petreus into Awakening movement, to pit occupation resistance against nascent Al-Qaeda, against traditional tribes, and against Shiia. Now, awakening has grown into ISIS, Saudi is funding it, arms came from all over Eastern European "we are afraid of Russia' allies, Wahhbi ideology is spread through Salafism, and all the arms and training that we are pumping into Syria — is now used to occupy Iraq. CONGRATULATIONS. If we planned it, and may be in the twisted world of neocons it was really the goal, we succeeded beyond any expectations.
So, the mass murderers now rampaging through Iraq we nurtured ourselves. While the people who from the get-go were against the menace was Bashar Assad, Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia.
Are we going to tell them now — you were right, and we were wrong? Not neocons. Let the whole country be shamed and ridiculed, but THEY are always right.