An inside look at the Iraqi "government"

[SOS]

From tomorrow's NYT book review of "The Occupation of Iraq - Winning the War, Losing the Peace" by Ali A. Allawi, former Iraqi Defense and Finance minister:

"As the Iraq war enters its fifth year, an old saying can be heard more and more often in the homes, cafes and streets of the country: “Because of a lack of horses, they put saddles on the dogs.” There are no real Iraqi leaders, a Kurdish friend told me, and the Americans have blindly, and often desperately, propped up politicians who are venal, ineffective and more than a little megalomaniacal.

They are warlords living in compounds walled off from the rest of Iraq, driving through Baghdad in armored convoys to cut backroom deals with one another, deciding who will control which cities, ministries and reconstruction contracts. Their first priority is their own well-being, or that of their political party, tribe or ethnic-sectarian group. They spew venomous oratory and push through divisive policies that have helped drive the country into a civil war. Ordinary Iraqis speak their names with more than a hint of bitterness: Hakim, Sadr, Maliki, Chalabi, Ayad Allawi, Barzani, Talabani, Hashimi, Dulaimi, Mutlak.
Like other authors before him, Allawi harshly criticizes the American effort in Iraq, concluding that “Bush may well go down in history as presiding over one of America’s great strategic blunders. Thousands of servicemen have been the casualties of a failed policy.” Also like others, Allawi blames the zealotry of the neoconservatives and the corruption inside the Coalition Provisional Authority, the governing body led by L. Paul Bremer III and stocked with naïve young political appointees."

Full review: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/books/review/Wong-t.html?_r=1&ref=review&oref=slogin

The "surge" is supposed to create an environment for reconciliation.
Any bets on the likelihood of that happening?

[seemslikeadream]

1. Ryan Crocker helped set up Iraq's provisional government following Saddam Hussein's fall

on his way to Tehran.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2859661