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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Maliki's fragile coalition

I had figured that it would be subduing the Shia splinter group in Basra that would fracture Maliki's governing coalition, and this might just be heavy politics over the post, but if Maliki can't hold the Shia coalition together, whatever pretense of government that is in Iraq may crumble.
Political sources said Maliki's rivals in his ruling Shi'ite Alliance had objected to his choice for interior minister, a job that also includes being in charge of police.

Officials in the Alliance and other blocs question whether his government can survive the combined pressure of internal rivalries and the incessant killing.

"Maliki's government may only last for another 6 months. That is what many think. There is too much pressure and too many players," said a source outside of Maliki's Dawa party.

"The situation is difficult, very, very difficult. There is more than a 60 percent chance that it will not continue. The government is not up to it."

posted by mikevotes at 6:48 AM

3 Comments:

  • There's been so much bloodshed between the sects already that it's going to take a magician to hold the government together. I can't see how this can be resolved peacefully.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:35 AM  

  • I really don't either, but believe it or not I'm still hoping. I do feel the need to add that Maliki is not "a magician," he was a consensus candidate who got the job because he had done the least to offend the various groups. That's not what Iraq needs right now. They need a bigger than life figure.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 12:42 PM  

  • You wrote: "I had figured that it would be subduing the Shia splinter group in Basra that would fracture Maliki's governing coalition."

    Do you still think so? I've been trying to make some sense of the politics of Maliki's state of emergency in Basra and I'm grateful for your discussion of the topic. For additional discussion, feel free to drop by profcutler.com

    By Blogger Cutler, at 5:44 AM  

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