The Maliki response to US criticism?
Looking at the AP version of Maliki's response to Levin and Bush's criticism of his government, two interesting coded bits jumped out at me.
"Those who make such statements are bothered by our visit to Syria." (Within the context, this is Maliki making a coded reference to US supporters of Israel and attributing Levin's anti-Maliki comments to the fact that he's Jewish.)
"We will pay no attention. We care for our people and our constitution and can find friends elsewhere," Maliki said. (Obviously a veiled threat of a turn towards Iran.)
(In some ways, all of this does play to Maliki's advantage by giving him "independence" at this critical moment of the "crisis talks," but I don't think it's part of some complex plan. I really believe that the Bush administration is giving Maliki a soft ultimatum. Give us political progress by Sept. 15 or else.)
Also yesterday, Ryan Crocker reinforced the new message.
The article is titled, "U.S. ambassador rates Iraq progress as poor."
"Those who make such statements are bothered by our visit to Syria." (Within the context, this is Maliki making a coded reference to US supporters of Israel and attributing Levin's anti-Maliki comments to the fact that he's Jewish.)
"We will pay no attention. We care for our people and our constitution and can find friends elsewhere," Maliki said. (Obviously a veiled threat of a turn towards Iran.)
(In some ways, all of this does play to Maliki's advantage by giving him "independence" at this critical moment of the "crisis talks," but I don't think it's part of some complex plan. I really believe that the Bush administration is giving Maliki a soft ultimatum. Give us political progress by Sept. 15 or else.)
Also yesterday, Ryan Crocker reinforced the new message.
"The progress on the national level issues has been extremely disappointing and frustrating to all concerned— to us, to Iraqis, to the Iraqi leadership itself," Crocker said."We do expect results, as do the Iraqi people, and our support is not a blank check."
The article is titled, "U.S. ambassador rates Iraq progress as poor."
posted by mikevotes at
7:40 AM
5 Comments:
"Give us political progress by Sept. 15 or else."
Or else... what?
"We do expect results..."
No we don't. We wish there were results, but no one really "expects" results. Do they?
"... and our support is not a blank check."
Hmmm. Yeah, it is... Our actions speak much louder than our impotent words.
By
-epm, at 11:04 AM
Maliki is basically saying shut up and eat your bagels. It probably plays quite well in the Arab world.
By
Anonymous, at 11:21 AM
EPM, We have virtually no leverage left. When Maliki was tied to Sadr, the Us could tilt its attacks between the Maliki/Mahdi and the enemy Sunnis to influence things through the military, but now, even that's gone.
....
Anon, Definitely. It was a coded diplomatic barb that plays well among his constituencies and will pass largely unnoticed among the rest of the world.
By
mikevotes, at 11:24 AM
The Shia have Basra now and most of Baghdad. I'd say Maliki's mission is accomplished.
By
Anonymous, at 12:52 PM
I'm not too sure. BAsra was always going to be Shia.
I would say his mission was to set up a Shia dominated goverment and security force throughout the country, to put the Shia on every lever of power, and he's done a fair job there.
However, not mediating well between the MAhdi and SIIC has led to the Kurds having more influence than they would if unity had remained.
By
mikevotes, at 1:06 PM
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