Well, they call it a government...
May. 20th, 2006 07:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
danalwynSo there is now officially an Iraqi government for the first time since 2003. That can't be all bad news, can it?
Unfortunately, not everybody is happy. There are still vacancies for the Interior and Defense ministries, the two most important posts in the entire government (with exception of the leadership roles). Ideally, the Defense minister will control the new Iraqi Army, and the Interior minister will control the nation's police force. Since both of these are instruments of political power that can be used to control the streets, these are both hotly contested positions.
Al-Jazeera reports that the Sunnis want the defense ministry and that the Shia want interior. As a compromise I suppose the Shia Prime Minister, Nouri Maliki, has temporary control over interior, and the Sunni deputy PM Salam Zaubai is acting defense minister. This did not appear to sit well with the Sunni party, who were looking for permanent appointments to those positions, and at least one major party staged a walk-out in protest.
So, as expected, things are not going well. But they could be going much worse. What really remains to be seen is A) who gets the cabinet-level positions, and B) whether they can keep a reign over Iraq's fragmented military and police infrastructure. The real challenge will be in controlling the militia, but it looks like we're years away from that.
Situation is a little better though, so I can still have hope.
Unfortunately, not everybody is happy. There are still vacancies for the Interior and Defense ministries, the two most important posts in the entire government (with exception of the leadership roles). Ideally, the Defense minister will control the new Iraqi Army, and the Interior minister will control the nation's police force. Since both of these are instruments of political power that can be used to control the streets, these are both hotly contested positions.
Al-Jazeera reports that the Sunnis want the defense ministry and that the Shia want interior. As a compromise I suppose the Shia Prime Minister, Nouri Maliki, has temporary control over interior, and the Sunni deputy PM Salam Zaubai is acting defense minister. This did not appear to sit well with the Sunni party, who were looking for permanent appointments to those positions, and at least one major party staged a walk-out in protest.
So, as expected, things are not going well. But they could be going much worse. What really remains to be seen is A) who gets the cabinet-level positions, and B) whether they can keep a reign over Iraq's fragmented military and police infrastructure. The real challenge will be in controlling the militia, but it looks like we're years away from that.
Situation is a little better though, so I can still have hope.