Iraqi Sunni cleric urges U.S. to abandon Maliki

[sabra]

Source: Reuters

AMMAN, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Iraq's top Sunni cleric called on the United States on Monday to cut ties with Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, saying his "puppet" government had failed and a U.S. backed political process was at a dead end.

"If the Americans remain with this policy and rely on the same men who proved their failure again and again then they will leave Iraq in failure," Sheikh Harith al-Dari told Reuters.

"The U.S. administration should rectify its position in Iraq and stop depending on puppets... who have proven their failure," the leader of Iraq's Muslim Clerics Association said in an interview in Amman.

...

Dari, whose association groups Iraq's Sunni religious leaders, said Washington had brought untold suffering on Iraq's people during its four-year-old occupation and it should now try to foster a non-partisan government.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L13229150.htm

[truthisfreedom]

1. So... what do we rely on now? Free elections in Iraq?

Have the used diebold machines arrived yet from Florida and California?

[kenny blankenship]

3. I think the US has been preparing for and laying the groundwork for Sunni secession in Anbar

Maliki is about the most conciliatory Shia government frontman that could be found. Withdrawing from his gov't could just be the Sunnis angling for some leverage on the division of oil revenues once Parliament reconvenes, but it might be exactly what it looks like on the surface: total rejection.
Sunnis may be going the rejection route because the US has "realigned" in their direction (according to some Sy Hersch articles about half a year back). Having discovered that the Shia majority was inexorably lining up with Iran, and getting a hot earful about that subject from the Saudi royal family, Bush has tilted US favor in Iraq towards the Sunni minority. The US Generals in command in Iraq have held talks with the leadership of Sunni militant groups. They have agreed them that we face a common enemy in the Iran-loving Shia majority parties, and in exchange for recognition, they have persuaded the Sunni tribal leaders to go after so-called "Al-Qaida" groups (Sunni Islamists). Vows were exchanged and weaponry has now been provided to the Sunnis.

The Bushlers are not so dumb that they can't see where this is all headed. The Shia don't intend to share wealth or power with the Sunnis - that's clear now if it ever was in doubt. The Sunnis may have to concede their powerlessness in the Federal gov't, they may have to concede Baghdad and certain provinces, but they will never accept Shia domination in their own majority province of Al-Anbar - not without a fight. Once all other outstanding business is settled however, the Shia rulers of Iraq are very unlikely to accept Anbar going its own way, like Iraqi Kurdistan has already done. Anbar, the largest of Iraq's provinces extends from the western periphery all the way into the center of Iraq where the capital Baghdad is situated. This has terrible security implications for a Shia state. If Anbar were allowed to go its own way, an invasion force from the west could roll almost to the gates of Baghdad itself without firing a shot; a whistle blows and in just hours the capital is taken and the country split in half north from south. No state on earth would allow their borders to be reshaped this way - not without a fight. Iraq and its players therefore are traveling down a path that will end in a good old fashioned secession conflict between Sunni Anbar and the rest of Iraq.

And in the face of these potentials, the Bush government is throwing arms to the Sunnis? That can only encourage tendencies to withdraw from the Parliament and to secede from the nation state of Iraq. That says to me that they see an eventual Sunni breakaway in Anbar as their least bad option. Anbar will be maintained as a buffer for Saudi Arabia against Iran to the east. What our soldiers are fighting and dying for in this "Surge", then, is only to bridge over the gap in time between now and the day when Anbar secedes, backed by the Saudis and ourselves.

Inspiring stuff, makes you want to enlist!

[provis99]

2. no surprises here

Sunni leader-guy doesn't like the Shi'ite leader-guy. And Bush said there wouldn't be a civil war. Jeesh.

[rodeodance]

4. No Can DO-----as our fealess leader has looked him in the eyeball and he is good