Posted on 01/13/2007 3:38:47 AM PST by TexKat
BAGHDAD — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has filled the top military job in Baghdad with a virtually unknown officer chosen over the objections of U.S. and Iraqi military commanders, officials from both governments said.
Iraqi political figures said Friday that Maliki also had failed to consult the leaders of other political factions before announcing the appointment of Lt. Gen. Abud Qanbar.
The appointment is highly significant because it is Maliki's first public move after President Bush's announcement that he was sending more troops to Iraq. The prime mission of those troops is to reduce violence in Baghdad, much of which is blamed on sectarian fighters.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1766821/posts
Maliki will be no help to Bush
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1766980/posts
Condi: Clock ticking for Maliki
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1766983/posts
Iraqi leader goes own way to fill top post
Hmmmmm. Back to the future? 1963?
This could be avery good thing or very bad thing.
Maliki's motives are simple enough, he wants to survive. If
his appointee turns out to be a Sadr ally and does not do the job Iraq is finished as far as an attempt at a pluralistic republic. It will be a bloody mess until the next Saddam restores an Iron handed order and prove Arabs are not worthy of better.
No doubt about it and there were those who said so, but they were ignored. The US is too nice and all it gets us is contempt.
07:30 AM EST
0:45 (est.) LIVE
Call-In
Iraqi Capabilities
C-SPAN, Washington Journal
Judith S. Yaphe, Senior Research Fellow, National Defense University, Institute for National Strategic Studies
Ms. Yaphe talks about the ability of the Iraqi government to meet demands placed upon it this week by President Bush in their efforts to bring security to Iraq.
(Pedro Etchevarria hosting)
Iraqi president to visit Syria on Sunday
By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jan 12, 6:28 PM ET
DAMASCUS, Syria - Days after President Bush accused Syria of encouraging the violence in Iraq, President Jalal Talabani on Sunday will become the highest-level Iraqi official to visit this country in more than 24 years.
His visit, announced on Iraqi television and confirmed by a Talabani spokesman Friday, aims to seal the ties between the two neighbors after they restored diplomatic relations in December, cut in 1982 amid ideological disputes between the Syrian government and Saddam Hussein's regime.
The Iraqi president will arrive Sunday and stay for four or five days, Talabani's spokesman Kamaran Qaradaghi told the Associated Press. State-run Iraqiya television said Talabani will meet Syrian President Bashar Assad and sign security and economic agreements.
Qaradaghi would not elaborate on Talabani's goals for the visit. But the Iraqi president was expected to discuss security on the country's long desert border with Syria.
The United States and Iraqi officials accuse Damascus of allowing Sunni insurgents to cross the frontier freely to carry out attacks in Iraq.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki — a more powerful political figure than Talabani, whose post is largely symbolic — has been cool to Damascus, insisting that Iraq's neighbors should stop meddling in Iraqi affairs or helping its foes.
On Wednesday, Bush lashed out at Syria — and its ally Iran — in a speech announcing plans to dispatch 21,500 more U.S. troops to Iraq to try to stabilize country.
Bush accused Syria and Iran of supporting the violence in Iraq, and vowed to break supply lines from them to Iraqi militants. He called on U.S. Arab allies to rally behind Iraq's Shiite-led government in what was seen in the Arab world as a move to isolate Syria and Iran.
Syria says it is doing all it can to patrol its border and blames the Americans and the Iraqis for not doing enough to monitor the porous frontier.
Talabani's visit is part of a diplomatic balancing act, as Baghdad tries to build relations with its powerful neighbors without antagonizing its chief patron, the United States.
The restoration of diplomatic ties between Iraq and Syria marked a warming of relations after years of hostility. Damascus quarreled with Saddam, and shunned the new Iraqi leadership that came to power after the 2003 U.S. invasion.
Both Iraq's interior minister and parliament speaker have made recent trips to Syria. Iraq's Shiite-led government also has developed close ties with Shiite Iran, which has been at odds with the United States for nearly 30 years.
Syria broke diplomatic ties with Iraq in 1982, accusing it of inciting riots in Syria. The two countries were ruled by rival branches of the Arab nationalist Baath party, and Damascus sided with Iran in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
Talabani spent considerable time in exile in Syria during Saddam's 23 years in power and has maintained good relations with Assad — as Talabani did with Assad's father, the late Syrian leader Hafez Assad.
____
AP writers Bassem Mroue in Baghdad and Albert Aji in Damascus contributed to this report.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070112/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_syria
Bump.
Maybe Pedro or a caller will ask Judith S. Yaphe about this development?
Thanks for the heads up leadpenny!
Are you gonna start a thread for the CSPAN call in?
Wasn't planning on it. I don't know anything about this gal. Sometimes these guests bomb.
I suggest posting comments here.
yuck...i suggest audio streaming of CSPAN only
So far, she's an effective speaker, imo.
Not a 24/7 Cable, talking head babe. But, she probably is a lecturer at the Defense U.
She does....though I do get tired of the non-arab, non-Iraqi, experts talking about Iraq...
Judith (on C-SPAN) just agreed with you.
You did. Maliki has to show his independence.
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