The Coming Crisis

I have maintained for several years that the biggest reason for our failure to pacify Iraq has been that we are operating in the "Iraq of our dreams," rather than the Iraq in which the various kinds of Iraqis live and which is regarded with mixed greed and fear by its neighbors. 

In the mind of George Bush, Iraq is a country inhabited by a unified single people who are governed (sort of) by a constitutionally elected regime headed by Nuri al-Maliki who is expected to fulfill the role of a George Washington in leading the unitary Iraqi people forward if only the pesky Sunni Arab insurgents could be suppressed or bought off with economic incentives that somehow have not yet been offered.  Another, unassimilable and unaccountable difficulty, is the similarly pesky alignment that exists among our George Washington candidate (Maliki) and the various Shia Arab factional party and militia leaders.  Conclusion and Decision:  Reinforce US forces in the Baghdad region to destroy the Sunni insurgents and force a separation between Maliki (Washington) and the Shia militia and political leaders.  Why the latter decision?  Because Bush's illision about Maliki is not tenable without it.

Problem:  Maliki is not George Washington.  He is only disguised as George Washington. He is in fact, just another Shia political and militia leader, and not the strongest either.  His Washingtonness exists only in the Mind of the Decider and in the "life illusion" (look it up) of many in the 3rd World (especially in poor Iraq) where many of the best people know what it is they should be and can not admit to themselves that they are not.  Is that their fault?  Hell, no! We broke their country and reduced it to a state of factional chaos.  We broke a country that had been trying to become a nation since the '20s.  I will here quote my hero, Mr. Jefferson, "I fear for my country when I know that God is just.

Because of the rich Bushian fantasy life it will be demanded in the New Plan that Maliki distance himself, and indeed fight, if necessary, to disarm and render impotent Shia Arab militias.  He is INCAPABLE OF DOING THAT!! He is one of the Shia Arab leaders.  His role in history is to empower the Shia Arabs and to consolidate their power over the Sunni Arabs.  Was that clear enough?

The United States is going to pressure Maliki HARD to confront Sadr.  He will not do that, and there will then be a massive crisis.

Danielle Pletka, the "sweetheart of the regiment" over at AEI said on "Late Editions," yesterday that Maliki knows that if he "does not perform"...

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