More troops will not solve crisis in Iraqi leadership, experts warn

[cal04]

Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, is due to unveil his rescue package for the country next week, a day or two before George Bush does the same in Washington. The question, though, is whether Mr Maliki's heart is really in it. And, even if the will is there, whether he can make much difference.

No matter what the US does, the only real solution is for Iraq's fractious post-Saddam leadership to agree on the kind of country they want and who will rule it, politicians, analysts and diplomats in Baghdad said yesterday. But amid the furore over Saddam's execution, such a deal appears further away than ever.

"If they can't answer and act on the fundamental questions, no amount of extra troops in the capital or in the troubled Sunni areas like Anbar and Diyala provinces will give the Americans sufficient leverage," said an Arab diplomat in Baghdad, who did not wish to be named.

An expected "surge" in US soldiers in the capital may even inflame the security situation, he suggested, by "either providing more targets for the gunmen on the streets" or by drawing US soldiers deeper into the sectarian warfare being fomented by extremist Shia and Sunni organisations, some of which have ties to powerful blocs in the Iraqi parliament.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1983971,00.html

[Life Long Dem]

1. This surge is for and about Iran. Who are they kidding? nt