US raises pressure on Iraq's leader
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki must show greater political progress to satisfy Washington.
from the May 10, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 4
A greater nationalist approach
Predictions of Maliki's fate vary widely. Few Iraqi political leaders foresee the kind of change that would allow for marked improvement on the ground in the next few months. And that, in turn, means they don't expect conditions to change significantly by September, which US leaders – political and military – increasingly pinpoint as the make-or-break review date for the US military surge.
"If Maliki does something different quickly to show he has initiatives, then he can stay in, but I'm not optimistic," says Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of parliament who supported Maliki's rise. "If he doesn't, this government has no more than three months, it can't survive more."
What shackles Maliki most is the fact that his government is more a balancing act of political parties than a cabinet serving a national agenda set by him.
The Iraqi people crave a strong national leader to take bold steps, Mr. Othman says, but Maliki may not fit the role since he was not chosen to be that kind of leader.
"If Maliki had initiatives the Iraqi people would support him, and there is a lot he could do on his own," says Othman. "But he lacks the charisma, he has a weak personality, so we have a government of political parties."
As the first post-Hussein government, Maliki's was always going to have trouble exercising authority, so expecting quick action may simply be unrealistic, some experts say.
"The problem is not Maliki, but a government that was not set up to work in a strong national interest," says Hameed Fadhil, deputy dean of the College of Political Science at Baghdad University. "It is not based on a nationalist view but on sectarian perspectives."
He cites as an example a proposed easing of de-Baathification measures to allow more of the former Baath Party members of Saddam Hussein's regime to return to state jobs and collect benefits.
"With the heritage of the previous regime, it's not possible to change the de-Baathification law, not in a year, not in five years," says Mr. Fadhil. "The parties that represent the victims and families of victims would not allow this."
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