The Bush Doctrine: Incompetence is Good Government

Iraqi Prime Minister Promises Government Shake-Up
Read the whole story at the New York Times


Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, Iraqi Prime Minister, has promised a sweeping shake-up of his government to rid it of cabinet ministers he says are incompetent, corrupt, and weak. Maliki complains that he didn't have enough freedom to select ministers he could work with inside the Iraqi Parliament.

Meanwhile, Maliki has irked the American military by demanding that checkpoints be removed, searches for a missing US soldier and Shiite militia leaders believed responsible for his kidnapping be suspended, appearing to condone sectarian violence by those same militias. As the violence continues to spiral upward, Maliki -- concerned about his future -- asked the Bush administration if they were plotting against him in an effort to unseat him.

In yesterday's blog (A Plan of Action For Iraq), three out of four of the options to fix the Iraqi fiasco include getting rid of the current government.

Maliki seeks to blame the problems of his poor performance on his fellow cabinet ministers. But as the Prime Minister, the buck (and we're spending billions of them in Iraq) stops with him. Now Maliki does govern in an environment where politicians, judges, butchers, bakers, barbers and boys are kidnapped, beheaded, blown up, shot, tortured or just mysteriously end up in mass graves. So perhaps he is afraid of that same fate befalling him.

But Maliki also knew what to expect when he ran for office and when he was elected. So far he hasn't done anything to quell any of the violence Iraqis live with every day. Sure, he's working hard. And it's hard work. And you have to be a hard worker to do the hard work. But the Iraqis elected him to be a Uniter, not a Divider; to be the chief Decider and decide what is best for his people. Apparently he's decided that he better off being the Appeaser.

When are those Iraqi mid-term elections?