48 Bodies found in Baghdad : US Officials Impatient with Maliki

48 Bodies found in Baghdad
US Officials Impatient with Maliki

Paul Richter of the Los Angeles Times discusses the frustrations of American officials in Baghdad with the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Al-Maliki opposed Israel's war on Lebanon, and has sought good relations with neighboring Iran, neither move synchronizing with US policy. He has also been slow off the mark to get the process of national reconciliation going among Sunni Arabs and Shiites, has seemed helpless in the face of militia activity, and has not been able to get a handle on the security situation.

Richter reports that some Americans in the Green Zone are beginning to think they'd be better off with a traditional Middle Eastern strong man than a weak elected prime minister. But they admit that support for al-Maliki remains Washington's policy for now.

The CPA, America's government of Iraq for a year, supposedly stood for "Coalition Provisional Authority. Locally, it became known as "Can't Provide Anything." The astonishingly poor performance of the CPA is explained by WaPo journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran: the criteria for selection of the personnel was personal loyaltly to George W. Bush, and a lot of snot-nosed kids were sent off with big responsibilities and no experience. Some candidates were asked about Roe v. Wade. There was never any legal authority for the CPA in American law, and its procedures were irregular, sometimes corrupt, and mostly criminally incompetent. (As with any big group of people, there were some highly competent persons in the group; but they were not allowed to accomplish anything.) The cronyism of the CPA should have been a warning as to what was going on in Washington DC itself, e.g. Brownie at FEMA or Douglas Feith at the Department of Defense.

Police found 48 bodies in various places in Baghdad on Saturday.

Reuters reports civil war violence on Saturday:

. . . KIRKUK - Iraqi police killed two insurgents after they repelled an attack by them on their checkpoint, just south of Kirkuk, police said. Two policemen were also wounded in the attack. . .

MOSUL - Three policemen were wounded when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in the northern city of Mosul, police said. . . .

SAMARRA - Iraqi police said four members of the Albu Baz tribe were killed along with a gunman who attacked them on Friday after they clashed in the city of Samarra, police said. The Albu Baz tribe blamed al Qaeda militants for the attack. . .

BAGHDAD - Two Iraqi soldiers were killed and three wounded when a bomb exploded inside a car they approached that contained a body, an Interior Ministry source said.

BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomb killed one civilian and wounded 22 when the attacker detonated his vehicle outside a well-fortified police station in southern Baghdad's Doura district, police said. . . .

BAGHDAD - A Sunni member of Iraq's parliament escaped a bomb attack on his convoy unhurt as he travelled through western Baghdad, police said. Two of Mohammed al-Dani's guards were lightly wounded in the attack. . . .

BAQUBA - A roadside bomb killed three policemen and wounded another when it blew up as a police patrol was passing in the restive town of Baquba, police said. . . .

RAMADI - A suicide car bomb targeting a U.S. military patrol killed four civilians and wounded eight, police said.