Maliki fires 3,000 gov't employees for militia ties

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman, Multi-National Force - Iraq. BAGHDAD — Politics is the best means available to the Iraqi Government and Coalition to deal with armed militias in the country, the spokesman for Multi-National Force – Iraq said during a press conference here Monday.

Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, spokesman, MNF-I, said Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is dealing with political leaders in the country to disarm the militias, and Coalition officials are supporting that effort.

The goal, he said, is that the militias would disband and rely on the local Iraqi Security Force for protection and maintaining order. Militias that won’t engage in a political solution will be met with force, the general said.

“There's going to be those elements that are irreconcilable, that aren't going to be able to work through the political process, and those will be dealt with in a kinetic manner with direct action,” Caldwell said.

The prime minister is moving forward with a reconciliation process, but this does not mean the militias have a free hand in the meantime, Caldwell said.

“If there is somebody operating outside of the law, if there is somebody who is conducting illegal activity and we're aware of it, then we will take the action immediately to stop that and to apprehend or detain whoever is associated with that,” the general said. “Nobody will operate outside the law.”

The Iraqi Government is working to eradicate militia influence inside the security force structure. In the Ministry of the Interior, 3,000 people were fired for their ties to militias. Some of them are being criminally charged.

“They're moving forward and addressing some of the people within that ministry that are not swearing allegiance to first and instead maybe in fact have allegiance to some other element,” Caldwell said.

Interior Ministry forces are going through refresher training. The ministry pulled the 8th Brigade of the 2nd National Police Division offline and put it through training. Interior replaced the entire leadership of the unit. The move, Caldwell said, is a step forward to show that the government will not allow sectarian bias to exist within the Police Force.

These people are only good for brutal dictatorial rule.

They need a strong central government, not necessarily a dictator.

It takes time to educate the voter to recognize the need for this strength. In a way, they voted to elect a strong party when they elected Malaki, but this had some undesirable effects on the Sunnis.

Malaki has not been there for very long. We need to give him some time to assert the government's powers. We are far too impatient to do nation building in the Middle East. Far too impatient.....

The legislature needs to get involved and give the government all it needs to reign in the sectarian violence.

This is a Iraqi problem, and of all the various Muslim States, Iraq has the best chance of accomplishing a democratic system to manage all the tribal interests that complicate their culture.

I cannot imagine this process taking less than ten years to gain a foothold, and no, we don't need to be there with current numbers.

They are going to settle their animosities, regardless of what pressures we put upon them. We need to allow this process to finish in it's natural time and allow certain events to occur which will change the Iraqi mindset in time.

I think Americans need to take it all in, but don't lose sight of the goal. It will take longer then we had hoped, and there is good reason to be hopeful for the future.

There is no reason to pull out, but we do need to change our tactics to reflect the realities.

Pulling out now would be a total failure and result in the creation of a most dangerous situation that will quickly draw us back in....But, we need to reduce our levels of military combat assistance, and let the Iraqi's make their own mistakes by learning the hard way.

It is the only hope they have to survive in the longterm....

Let the civil war proceed, if that is really what they want, but I don't think it is. I think we are helping too much, and need to concentrate on training and government assistance to build a stronger central government system.

Your list is fine with me. And for the most part I would agree and or have no major objection(s).
It is not only the PM that is at issue but so many political appointments, and otherwise that simply have demonstrated their inability to govern effectively within the constraints this country now is faced with.
I have made allowance in my comments over the past half year or so, to include the possibility that Maliki is not a push over, but may actually be a clever politician who simply seeks peacefull dialog verse force.
And obviously, the majority of the military is composed of Shia. With of course divisional strength coming from the Kurds in the northern provinces.
One can with most probable safety assert that even their military forces is fragmented in it's loyalies
Iraq has no underlining common denominator to unite the people other then the cry for peace and stability for all Iraqi.
Most common folk are powerless to do anything about the violance other then to hide, or leave the country or locate to areas that are quiet as a churchmouse.
One key problem is he represents a one sided government for the most part, not a unity government.
Obviously one must examine the whole scenario. Which includes so many gottchas. He has been beholden to the very people that allowed him to assume the PM position, of course being dominated by the SCIRI,IDP,UIA, and lesser Shiite parties.
Guys like Ahmed Chalabi from the INC, Iyad Allawi from the INL, and say the IAF's Adnan Al-Dulamini (largest Sunni block) have been pretty much sidelined.
That is to be expected in the mix we are dealing with and the realities of who wants to maintain key power bases.
Further. Regardless of who leads, the facts remain there are people like Hakim and Sadr who will always work in the background to get what they want and use the advantage/threat of their large and well organized militias.
Then we have the normal scenario of corrupt political institutions. The oil, interior, education and health ministries have so many thieves and sectarian oriented people running things it is a wonder Iraq has not fallen apart at this point.
In short. They obviously need time to stabilize in a number of ways. I just hope Maliki turns out to be a fair leader, where he can somehow unite the majority of Iraqi under one umbrella.
But as we observe, he is not viewed as a strong and determined leader such as say Allawi is.
If it where not for their method of voting, Allawi would have been given a second chance to bring down the insurgency and the sectarian violance as well as finding the best people to operate key ministry posts.
As for their trumatized state, I agree in full. Under Saddam and his predessors most Iraqi knew where they stood. If they where amongst the Baathist, then all was well. The Shia just went along with things since death was the most likely alternative.
The whole Iraqi (British spawned protectoriate) experiment has been at odds with real word realities for a long time.
Saddam stepped in with his band of henchmen and took advantage of what was inevitable. Now however, things are a bit sticky.
They do need time to add two and two together and then choose what paths they want to follow. The new experiment is in it's infancy.

It could be as simple as what you say. But nothing is simple. One thing we should remember IMHO, is that the president of Iraq, Talabani a Kurd, is always sitting on the side line watching carefully as to what is done. He could if he deems it appropriate to request the Presidency Council to replace Malaki and or say his MD or MI if they continue to appear inept.
To many things that must be taken into account to settle on on e scenario. For all we know, the Iraqi president may be a driving force in any actions Maliki fails to show competence in.
I do think the current scenario of Sadr no longer backing Maliki, may be actually true. Should Hakim and his crowd also give Maliki the middle finger, then the equation changes considerably. Maliki like Sadr have been strong proponents of Shia role, but not Persian driven nor controlled.

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