Time For A Democratic Coup

In sports, it's often said that teams can't fire all the players, so they fire the coach. This is the mentality behind the shameful proposal by some Democrats, like Carl Levin and Hillary Clinton, to "fire" Nouri al-Maliki as Prime Minister of Iraq. Only we're not the owners of the country. The Iraqi people own the country, and only they can sort out the problems they now face. A new intelligence estimate declares that Maliki will not be able to bring together factions and achieve a political reconciliation, but it doesn't exactly see any other option, either:

“The report says that there’s been little political progress to date, and it’s very gloomy on the chances for political progress in the future,” said one Congressional official with knowledge of its contents.

The new report also concludes that the American military has had success in recent months in tamping down sectarian violence in the country, according to officials who have read it.

The report, which was intended to help anticipate events over the next 6 to 12 months, is “more dire in its assessments” than the administration has been in its own internal discussions, according to one senior official who has read it. But the report also warns, as Mr. Bush did on Wednesday, that an early withdrawal would lead to more chaos.

“It doesn’t take a policy position,” one official said. “But it leaves you with the sense that what we’ve been doing hasn’t been working, but we can’t let up, or it’ll get worse.”

Damned if we stay and damned if we leave. Nice position you've put the country in, W.

Indeed, American officials are ending any hopes that democracy can exist in Iraq under the current structure. Changing Maliki in favor of a strongman who will crush opposing viewpoints is essentially what the generals are arguing here. And so we're back to the cult of Iyad Allawi, which, um, didn't work the first time, fellas.

he powerful Republican lobbying group of Barbour Griffith & Rogers is plotting an effort to displace Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and supplant him with former interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. IraqSlogger reported:

BGR’s work for Allawi includes the August 17 purchase of the Web site domain Allawi-for-Iraq.com.

In recent days, BGR sent hundreds of e-mail messages in Allawi’s name from the e-mail address DrAyadAllawi@Allawi-for-Iraq.com.

Allawi has been described as “Saddam lite.” In 2004, he handcuffed and blindfolded suspected terrorists and shot them in the head with a pistol. Now, with frustrations mounting against current prime minister Maliki, the administration may be using that as an opportunity to usher in its reliable ally Allawi. In a Washington Post op-ed last week, Allawi wrote a piece that seemed to be an effort to curry favor with the White House.

You know, overthrowing governments appears to be the only thing the Bushies can manage. They certainly can't deal with the aftermath.

All of this is kind of a useless argument. To believe that changing the figurehead of the Iraqi government would effect change assumes that you believe there still IS a functioning Iraqi government, and not a collection of city-states run by militias and factions. Militias control the electricity grid, by and large. Sunni militants can hold out in tiny Baghdad neighborhoods for months on end. The Iraqi government is irrelevant in this scenario, and no matter who is its leader, they will not be listened to. We have totally broken this failed state, and whether or not leaving will cause chaos, staying certainly already has. The famed "consequences of failure" are already being met. So Bush and McCain and Lieberman can play "Rambo" and claim that if we just stay a little bit longer (read: indefinitely) everything will be all right, but everything is already all wrong.

Get out. Now.