Jawad Maliki, the great Iraqi hope?

Still no sense of how hopeful we should be about Jawad Maliki, Iraq's new PM. The Economist looks at his challenges: Sorting out the interior ministry is one of the most pressing tasks in building the Iraqi state. Another is training troops. Last Thursday an American general claimed that 250,000 Iraqi troops are now “trained ...

Still no sense of how hopeful we should be about Jawad Maliki, Iraq's new PM. The Economist looks at his challenges:

Still no sense of how hopeful we should be about Jawad Maliki, Iraq's new PM. The Economist looks at his challenges:

Sorting out the interior ministry is one of the most pressing tasks in building the Iraqi state. Another is training troops. Last Thursday an American general claimed that 250,000 Iraqi troops are now “trained and equipped”, and that 58 battalions were now taking the lead in their areas of operation. A year ago, the general said, only three battalions were in the lead. He called a quarter of operations (at or above the level of the company, around 200 men), independent Iraqi operations. It is hard to judge whether these claims represent genuinely improving Iraqi capability, or American wishful thinking.

To me its still unclear why Maliki is more acceptable to Jaafari. I've read that it's mostly a personality thing, but the actual task ahead isn't all that much easier for him. Spencer Ackerman at TNR argues that Maliki presents the same problems as Jaafari did: 

Maliki is an embodiment of every sectarian problem that dumping Jaafari was supposed to solve. And the rise of a Shia hardliner in response to pressure suggests both that they don't intend to give up power without a fight–and that Khalilzad's praiseworthy effort at crafting a sectarian balance of power may be self-defeating.

At least the slow train wreck feeling of the Jaafari nomination is out of the way. I guess there's not much left to do but to hope the new guy can pull off the gargantuan task ahead of him.

Tag: Iraq

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