Ibrahim al-Jaafari Wants His Job Back
Not only are Americans tired of the situation in Iraq an Iraqi leader has had enough of the lack of political progress:
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki faces a revolt within his party by factions that want him out as Iraqi leader, according to officials in his office and the political party he leads.
Ibrahim al-Jaafari, al-Maliki’s predecessor, leads the challenge and already has approached leaders of the country’s two main Kurdish parties, parliament’s two Sunni Arab blocs and lawmakers loyal to powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Al-Jaafari’s campaign, the officials said, was based on his concerns that al-Maliki’s policies had led Iraq into turmoil because the prime minister was doing too little to promote national reconciliation.
The former prime minister also has approached Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, proposing a “national salvation” government to replace the al-Maliki coalition. The Iranian-born al-Sistani refused to endorse the proposal, the officials said.
“Al-Jaafari is proposing a national and nonsectarian political plan to save the nation,” said Faleh al-Fayadh, a Dawa party lawmaker familiar with the former prime minister’s contacts.
Other officials, however, said al-Jaafari had only an outside chance of replacing or ousting al-Maliki. But they said the challenge could undermine al-Maliki and further entangle efforts at meeting important legislative benchmarks sought by Washington. They spoke of the sensitive political wrangling only on condition of anonymity.
Something needs to be done. In Baghdad we have a gridlocked government that makes Washington look like the shining example of governmental efficiency. The point of the surge was to put insurgents and Islamist terrorists on the run allowing the government to make political progress. Instead, while more U.S. troops pacify areas the Iraqi parliament went on vacation.
I don’t know if al-Jaafari would do any better. Movement towards accomplishing political goals didn’t happen while he was Prime Minister. But a change needs to happen. Or else we should just pull all troops out and watch the resulting carnage from a safe distance.
“Iraqi Leader Faces Revolt within Party” [via Hot Air]
