Al-Maliki faces revolt within govt. Tom Hayden calls it a peaceful coup

[Opusnone]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061201/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki faced a widening revolt within his divided government as two senior Sunni politicians joined prominent Shiite lawmakers and Cabinet members in criticizing his policies.

Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi said he wanted to see al-Maliki's government gone and another "understanding" for a new coalition put in place with guarantees that ensure collective decision making.

"There is a clear deterioration in security and everything is moving in the wrong direction," the Sunni leader told The Associated Press. "This situation must be redressed as soon as possible. If they continue, the country will plunge into civil war."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-hayden/peaceful-coup-underway-in_b_35290.html

A peaceful coup is being attempted in Baghdad, seeking to replace Nouri al-Maliki with a coalition between the Sunni political leader Saleh al-Mutlak and the Shiite insurgent leader Moqtada al-Sadr.

In the background are calls from Iraq's leading Shiite and Sunni clerics for an American withdrawal timetable.

Al-Mutlak, an ex-Baathist who heads the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue has eleven seats in parliament which, combined with Sadr's twenty percent bloc, is enough to destabilize or even bring down the regime of al-Maliki.

As reported last week in the Huntington Post, secret efforts to strike a deal with the Sunni nationalist resistance have been underway for months. Ex-Baathists like Mutlak, Sunnis in the Muslim Scholars Association, and in particular the revered Sunni cleric Harith al-Dhari, are strongly supportive of a political settlement based on a US withdrawal timetable. But the sudden move by al-Sadr's Shiite bloc, which pulled out of the Baghdad government over al-Maliki's meeting with Bush, provides the anti-occupation coalition with significant, perhaps decisive, power, if they choose to bring down al-Maliki's shaky coalition.

US commanders make no secret of their desire to crush al-Sadr's Mahdi Army - indeed they are waging a war of attrition - but they will be frustrated if the new coalition takes hold. Mainstream media has reported that the US has hoped to cajole the Sunnis to align with al-Maliki against al-Sadr, a scenario that seemingly is being rejected and reversed. Instead, al-Sadr's bloc is demanding a US timeline for withdrawal.


more at link

[Beelzebud]

1. And I suppose it's a peaceful civil war too.

[Opusnone]

3. I think he's saying the takeover of the government is peaceful-not the war

Al-Maliki knows he has no control over the people. He can reasonably walk away with his life and flee the country like all other people of means and brains seem to be doing.

[Kelly Rupert]

2. Ah, the curse of Bush's approval...

"He's the right guy for Iraq"
"Heckuva job, Brownie."
"Don Rumsfeld is the right man for the job."