Malaki and the Next Big Thing in Friedman Units

[alcibiades_mystery]

Once we hit mid-summer, the strategy for supplying additional Friedman Units to the Iraq catastrophe took on two distinctive forms:

1) The surge is working, so another Friedman Unit will allow it to work
2) The surge is working, but the Iraqi Government is failing

The logical next step, then, is the replacement of the Iraqi government. This is what is going on now, and if you think it's gonna end the war, you're delusional. The drumbeat coming from the Very Serious People, including Great Seer Friedman himself, goes like this: If Malaki - an ineffectual leader - is replaced by somebody more forceful, then the two components of American Victory (tm) will be in place: military victory on the ground, and political victory in the formation of a stable government. THEREFORE, Malaki must go, and we must have another 6-12 months of war in order to allow the new government to take shape. Because, you know, you couldn't possibly pull out just when we - er, the Iraqi people - have established a new government, could you? This new line of reasoning explains the seemingly war-opposing anti-Malaki narratives that have emerged in the last few weeks, including among the Democrats (can anyone say hook, line, and sinker?). When Friedman publishes a gloomy assessment of the situation in the New York Times, you should not be fooled. He is merely angling for another Friedman Unit, and this one, dear God, shall work! When Senator Warner inveighs against the situation, he is merely setting up an argument that will prolong the war: Malaki Out, Six-to-Twelve months more, sir.

[bryant69]

1. Yep - I agree this seems to be the way it will go

I guess those purple thumbs didn't turn out to be all that important after all.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[sutz12]

2. So, we need two things.

1. More time. 2 or 3 Frieman Units oughta do.

2. Another Saddam Hussein.

[whistle]

3. So, a Coup de tête to get Malaki out and replace him with a U.S.

....selected strong man, perhaps someone with the same traits as Saddam Hussein. But that was who Bush took out and hung and spent nearly a trillion dollars and 3,800 American lives and 750,000 Iraqis killed and wiped his ass with the U.S. Constitution to establish democracy in Iraq for! Do I hear a :wtf:

[Warren Stupidity]

4. coup d'etat.

Coup de tête is more or less what they did to old saddam.

[whistle]

8. Let's sing it: you say d'état and I say de tête ....Uhmmm...let's call the whole thing off

...bothe were sudden, both were by force and both were illegal, but mine was wrong! Thanks for the correction

Define: Coup d'état

a sudden and decisive change of government illegally or by force
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

A coup d'état (pronounced 'kū dā ta'), or simply a 'coup', is the sudden overthrow of a government, usually done by a small group that just replaces the top power figures. It is different from a revolution, which is staged by a larger group and radically changes the political system. The term is French for "a sudden stroke, or blow, of a state". ...

[kenny blankenship]

5. Change of gov't should be good for at least a year's worth of gracetime

to year and a half. In fact we've already been down this road before. In the spring of last year, Nouri Al-Maliki was packaged as the "Unity Gov't" solution to the problems of the Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari. Jaafari was in office little over a year when an alliance of Kurds and Sunnis withdrew support from his governmnent.

So not counting the premiership of Ayad Allawi who led the interim government (after we handed over "sovereignty" to Iraq but before the Transitional Government which was to draft and ratify a constitution was installed), governments in Iraq are lasting only about 13 - 15 months. But when they are changed there is a flood of sentiment in the media about fresh starts and praising the new leaf turning; everyone is asked to set their doomsday clocks back at least a year out of respect for the new beginning that is taking shape in Iraq.

[old guy]

6. Malaki has to go.

He has been unable to deliver on the oil deal, its as simple as that.

[Jack Rabbit]

7. According to this logic, Malaki will be gone by Labor Day

It's not Friedman angling for another Friedman unit; Friedman gave up on the war. It's Bush and Cheney angling for one. Early on, Friedman was under the delusion that Bush and Cheney would fight the war he thought should be fought and bring American democracy to the Iraqi people rather than the one they planned, which was to bring Iraqi oil to American capitalists.

Other than that, this looks pretty good.

To sell Congress on extending the war by another Friedman unit, Malaki must be out of power by the time the Petraeus White House report on Iraq is presented. Then Bush and Cheney can argue that the additional troops improved security (at least where they were while they were there) and that there is now a new government in place that will (or might or could, maybe) have the political courage to unite Sunnis and Shias and Kurds under one free nation.

In the post title, I make reference to an American holiday. This is apt, since once again Iraq's future is being discussed in Washington without consulting Iraqis. Those idiots in Washington, both in the White House on the one hand and on the other those in Congress who refuse to impeach and remove them from office, are very used to paradox of touting democracy and not listening to the voice of the people. One real lesson from Vietnam to which Mr. Bush made no reference the other day is that political solutions for a nation's strife is not likely to be found in a foreign capital and certainly won't be found without the consent of people of that nation. The Vietnamese people did not want to be governed by a bunch of crooks in Saigon imposed on them by Americans.

The debate about the fate of Iraq is for the domestic entertainment of the American people. Unfortunately for the idiots in Washington, We, the people, are not amused. We learned that lesson in Vietnam. Why haven't the politicians?

[alcibiades_mystery]

9. Never install a new puppet in August...

:-)