Now that the US no longer has a military presence in Iraq the question that many are waiting to see is if the new Iraq will survive. In my opinion they may but it will be tenuous at best. If they do survive it will certainly be a testament to them and their tenacity.
Iraq has known nothing but violence during the last few decades and the average Iraqi only knows oppression by the very government that is supposed to protect them. The political situation there is terse to say the least. There are many factions who are just waiting on the right opportunity to be able to take control of Iraq. The absence of the United States and NATO presents them with a prime opportunity.
Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki ordered the country's vice president off a plane and had him held temporarily at Baghdad airport, on suspicion that members of his security detail took part in a string of assassinations. This gives you an idea of what is going on in that country. Government alliances are not strong enough in my opinion to support an independent Iraqi government.
In Baghdad's Green Zone, the center of the U.S. occupation after following the 2003 invasion, the tanks, personnel carriers and hundreds of troops that took up positions this weekend were Iraqi, not American. But their intimidating presence symbolized the sudden political crisis as well as the shift in power.
Maliki's move against Hashimi followed the arrest of at least six members of the vice president's security detail in the past two weeks, Interior Ministry officials said. On Friday, Maliki told members of his ruling multiparty alliance that several of the guards had confessed involvement in the assassinations of Shiite politicians over the past two years, according to a participant at the session. Hashimi's security detail is said to number 300.
In addition to this situation the Iranians are waiting to take control of Iraqi politics and use them as a puppet regime. They are not the only problem that the new Iraqi government will have and all of the wolves are not external as you can see by the article exerpt that I have included above.
The cleric named Muqtada al Sadr feels that he should be the de facto ruler of Iraq. He is staunchly anti US and from the hard line regime. I am waiting to see exactly how he will seek to consolidate his power in the region. There is no doubt in my mind that he will make some sort of move and it will be soon.
The Iranian government has heavy influence on the political moves that the Iraqis make and their attitude towards the west.
The US and Iraq could not come to an agreement on how many US troops would remain and certain legal procedures regarding those who remained in country. I believe that the Iraqie made their political decisions more to impress their neighbors than out of a genuine concern for the welfare of the Iraqi citizens.
Military Ring Express
