Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Iraq's main problem is political unity

The National: 'More than anything, though, Iraq's popular uprisings underscore that an unhappy public is no longer content idly watching a kleptocracy emerge. Iraq's leader should take heed.

Broken promises, endemic corruption and a fractured governing coalition have allowed anger to fester. But unlike Tunisia, Egypt or Libya, Iraq has the institutional framework to address people's grievances. Baghdad could theoretically eliminate power outages and increase workers' pay. Iraq's main problem is not its technical abilities, but its political unity.

...Of course Mr al Maliki is not the only Iraqi leader hijacking the political process. Leaders at all levels appear unable or unwilling to exercise the will of the public. As the Iraq analyst Reidar Visser noted this week, the inability to "rise above camaraderie and cliquishness" is suffocating any hope of lasting political reform.'

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