{"id":10877,"date":"2011-08-09T07:01:38","date_gmt":"2011-08-09T15:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=10877"},"modified":"2011-08-09T07:21:47","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T15:21:47","slug":"crocker-iraqi-pm-malikis-turn-towards-dictatorship-is-in-u-s-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/09\/crocker-iraqi-pm-malikis-turn-towards-dictatorship-is-in-u-s-interest\/","title":{"rendered":"Crocker: Iraqi PM Maliki’s Turn Towards Dictatorship Is “In U.S. Interest”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another new Wikileaks cable on Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki<\/a> provides some insight into U.S. intentions in one of its newest client states. The diplomat writing the cables is Ryan Crocker, just recently appointed Ambassador to Afghanistan<\/a>. He talks about Maliki’s turn towards authoritarianism and how his tactics and behavior have served to benefit U.S. interests there on the whole.<\/p>\n

\n
A key question posed by Maliki's evolving hold on\r\nlevers of political and security power is whether the PM is\r\nbecoming a non-democratic dictator bent on subordinating all\r\nauthority to his hand or whether Maliki is attempting to\r\nrebalance political and security authority back to the center\r\nafter five-plus years of intended and unintended dispersal to\r\n(and in some cases seizure by) actors and power structures\r\noutside Baghdad.<\/pre>\n
[...] First seen as weak, ineffective, and ill-informed\r\nabout the political and security structures put in place\r\nsince Saddam's fall (Maliki was not a participant in the\r\ngoverning bodies set up during the CPA), Prime Minister\r\nMaliki was by the fall of 2008 being widely criticized - by\r\nleaders of the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) and other Sunni\r\npoliticians, by the Kurdish political leadership, and by\r\nfellow Shi'a from outside Maliki's Da'wa Party -- as\r\nautocratic and excessively ambitious, with the long-term aim\r\nof becoming a new strong man dictator.  The \"political reform\r\nresolution,\" passed by parliament in conjunction with its\r\napproval of the U.S.-Iraq Security Agreement and Strategic\r\nFramework Agreement on November 27, 2008 (reftel), amounted\r\nto a manifesto of grievances against the Prime Minister that\r\nhad been growing among his coalition partners, and the\r\nopposition, throughout the year. \r\n\r\nThe document urged the Maliki Government to adhere to\r\nthe Constitution, to commit to a democratic federal system,\r\nto share power with the legislature, to professionalize and\r\ndepoliticize the security forces, to guarantee a free\r\njudiciary, disband \"unconstitutional structures\" within the\r\ngovernment, and release prisoners eligible for amnesty or\r\nheld without due process, among other demands.<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Details are given about Maliki’s incessant corruption, nepotism, and over-reliance on security forces to get his way. And what does the U.S. think of this turn to centralized authority and strong-arm security tactics<\/a>? It’s in the U.S. interest.<\/p>\n
\n
The critical progress on security and stability made\r\nover the past year, while underpinned by the U.S. military\r\nsurge, owes much to Maliki's leadership and restoration of\r\ncentral government authority.  It is in the interests of the\r\nU.S. to see that process of strengthened central authority\r\ncontinue...<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n
There is a caveat thrown in there about doing this in a more “sustainable” way that reflects strong “institutions rather than personalities” and a “consensus national vision” among Iraq’s main groups. That is, so long as the main groups don’t interfere with our interests in Iraq. For example, to act as a check on Iran, to give primacy to American business<\/a>, not interfering with U.S. military occupation and operations, and ignoring any part of Iraqi public opinion that contradicts U.S. imperial dictates.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Another new Wikileaks cable on Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki provides some insight into U.S. intentions in one of its newest client states. The diplomat writing the cables is Ryan Crocker, just recently appointed Ambassador to Afghanistan. He talks about Maliki’s turn towards authoritarianism and how his tactics and behavior have served to benefit U.S. interests […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[379,377,687,715],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-10877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crocker","tag-empire-2","tag-iraq","tag-wikileaks"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10877"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10883,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10877\/revisions\/10883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10877"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=10877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}