I worked on a PSD team for the State Dept in Iraq from ‘07-’12. Protected State Dept election monitors in ‘09. Maliki lost to Alawi, who everybody could get along with. Alawi is kind of secular, doesn’t play the radical islam thing, ain’t no fan of the Iranians and just wants to get his country back to some level of normalcy.
Maliki refused to vacate the office and vowed a fight if they tried to force him out. They settled on giving Alawi some type of position, but he no one could touch Maliki. When he was in exile, from Sadam, he lived in Iran. He is their bitch. They’ve been propping him up since day one and they aren’t going to let him go anywhere.
When the US (i.e. Obama Admin) did not back Allawi after his election victory, is when we (i.e. the Obama Admin) handed Iraq to Iran.
Maliki is the moderate face of Iranian influence/control. They could go with with Mookie Sadr, if they really want to let their freak flag fly, and abandon all semblance of anything but Iranian-style Shi’ite religious dictatorship, or another “moderate” front man. The Iranians always play that game of posing one of the team as “moderate” against another playing the “hardliner” to fool the West into supporting their agenda anyway.
Or maybe they will be squeezed hard enough to concede to something more inclusive (but likley still less than inclusive than Iyad Allawi would have been). It would be a lot more likely that their nuts could be squeezed hard enough, if we had a different administration in the US.
I’ve got my popcorn ready to watch the show.
I was in southern Iraq doing contract work when Maliki “won” reelection. What you said is spot on. Everyone who worked for me said they voted for Alawi.