Another Smug Editorialist

What amazes and frustrates Iraqis like me is how many pronouncements about Iraq are based on nothing at all: no insight, no knowledge of Iraq and its people, not even good will. Check out this editorial in Sunday's Los Angeles Times that offers the U.S. this sage advice: “Don’t dump Maliki” from his throne and don't back Ayad Allawi in his stead.

Why would the LAT side with a prime minister whom hardly any Iraqis still support? The author argues that he was elected. Fine, but Iraqis are exhausted by Al Maliki’s incompetence, and Iraq's constitution offers a legal mechanism for replacing him. The country has seen nothing from his "leadership." Al Maliki would like to remain prime minister; he has even "lashed out at American critics who have called for his ouster." But it's really people like the LAT editorialist who need to come to their senses. I mean, look at the "solution" that the editorial offers to address the political impasse in Baghdad:

“Iraq is long overdue for peace talks on a national scale, a process that should bring together all of its fractious parties -- except Al Qaeda -- as well as its key neighbors, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey. The first goal must be to negotiate a temporary cease-fire, admittedly no small feat given that Iraq is now a many-sided shooting match. Next, the parties must begin the lengthy and difficult process of negotiating a unity government. The United States has demonstrated that, by itself, it cannot even convene the parties. Could the United Nations do it? Could it work in concert with the European Union and the Arab League? Might it enlist diplomatic help from the energetic French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who has said Iraq needs international help?”

Is this "realism"? Neither the Iranian mullahs nor Syria's criminal regime have any interest in a stable, flourishing Iraq, and both have been working diligently to undermine Iraq's stability and to murder Iraqi citizens in their own interests. Maybe the UN can do for Iraq what it has done for Darfur. As for the Arab League, it has never done anything politically constructive for anybody. And supposing this high-minded meeting actually convenes; will AQI's mass-murderers take a vacation?

The reality is that a "unity government" negotiated on the basis of feel-good reconciliation isn't going to happen, and for the same reason that Maliki's weak leadership has floundered. WaPo quotes Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih on the "reconciliation" pipe dream: "There's not going to be political reconciliation by this September; there's not going to be political reconciliation by next September."

The LAT's advice about convening meetings may work in terms of the paper's domestic political agenda, but it doesn't seem very useful for Iraq. As most Iraqis have long ago come to realize, what is needed is a prime minister who will be tough on militia criminals, not beholden to them. If a sufficient number of Iraq's parliamentarians agree, and oust Maliki in favor of a figure like Allawi, what's it to the LAT?