They are pushing Maliki out in Iraq.

[KevinNYC]

Haider al-Abadi, come on down! (http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2014/08/11/iraq-president-spurns-maliki-choice-prime-minister/CQUKq4W50Qo6pqgmp2vKNL/story.html)

Iraq’s president formally nominated a candidate Monday to replace Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The step broke a monthslong political deadlock, but it also seemed to take Iraq into uncharted territory, as al-Maliki gave no signal that he was willing to relinquish power.

The nomination of Haider al-Abadi, who is a member of al-Maliki’s Shiite Islamist Dawa Party, came hours after a dramatic late-night television appearance in which a defiant al-Maliki challenged the Iraqi president, Fouad Massoum, and threatened legal action for not choosing him as the nominee.

As he spoke in the middle of the night, extra security forces, including special forces units loyal to al-Maliki, as well as tanks, locked down the fortified Green Zone of government buildings and took up positions around the city. Soldiers manned numerous checkpoints Monday. The atmosphere in the capital was tense.
There were no immediate signs Monday afternoon that al-Maliki had taken further steps to use military force to guarantee his survival. He was scheduled to make a public statement on television, along with other members of his Dawa Party who remain loyal to him.

Al-Maliki’s late-night television appearance, in which he appeared to be trying to intimidate Massoum by mentioning the army in the context of protecting the constitution, alarmed US officials, and left Baghdad wondering if a coup was imminent.

Under Iraq’s Constitution, al-Abadi now has 30 days in which to form a government that offers meaningful positions to Iraq’s main minority factions, Sunnis and Kurds. During that time, al-Maliki will remain as a caretaker leader, and as commander-in-chief of Iraq’s security forces.

You're the next contestant on Who Wants to Be Prime Minister of Iraq. (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/12/world/middleeast/obama-pledges-support-for-a-new-iraqi-leader.html)

President Obama said Monday that Iraq had taken a “promising step forward” in forming a more inclusive government even as Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki appeared to resist efforts to replace him as the country’s leader.

Speaking briefly to reporters from his vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard, Mr. Obama did not mention Mr. Maliki but pledged his support for Haider al-Abadi, the man chosen to succeed him. And Mr. Obama vowed to step up his support for a new government in its intensifying fight against Sunni militants.

“There will be difficult days ahead,” Mr. Obama said. “We stand ready to partner with Iraq in its fight against these terrorist forces.”

Continue reading the main story
RELATED COVERAGE

Supporters of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki at a demonstration on Monday in Baghdad.Tense Standoff With Maliki as Iraq Nominates New LeaderAUG. 11, 2014
Secretary of State John Kerry in Sydney, Australia, on Monday.Kerry Issues Warning to Iraqi LeaderAUG. 11, 2014
graphic Graphic: The Iraq-ISIS Conflict in Maps, Photos and VideoJUNE 12, 2014
The president spoke as the president of Iraq, Fuad Masum, named Mr. Abadi to succeed Mr. Maliki as prime minister. It was less than a day after Mr. Maliki demanded in a television address that the nation’s army come to the defense of the constitution and his right to stay in the office he has held for eight years.

Mr. Obama has previously said that support for the Iraqi government is dependent on a new government that includes all of the country’s factions to unify against the militants. In his remarks Monday evening, Mr. Obama praised Iraq’s leadership for beginning the process of building that government.

“Today, Iraq took a promising step forward in this critical effort,” Mr. Obama said.

The president said the United States military had stepped up its assistance to Iraqi and Kurdish forces, but he was not specific about what that assistance included. He said American forces continued to try and rescue Iraqi refugees who are trapped on Mount Sinjar, surrounded by militants.

[MavsSuperFan]

Maliki is horrible. he tried to cut out sunni and kurds from powerful position and purposely weakened the army in favor of making it more loyal to him.

With that said Iraq just cant work as a democracy. Sunnis, shia and kurds dont want to live in peace together.

They should just split the country. give kurds their areas, sunnis, theirs and shia theirs.

ISIS is powerful because of the legit grips of the sunni community.

[KevinNYC]

Maliki is horrible. he tried to cut out sunni and kurds from powerful position and purposely weakened the army in favor of making it more loyal to him.

With that said Iraq just cant work as a democracy. Sunnis, shia and kurds dont want to live in peace together.

They should just split the country. give kurds their areas, sunnis, theirs and shia theirs.

ISIS is powerful because of the legit grips of the sunni community.

Maliki is pretty horrible, but this new guy is also from the Dawa party. Maybe they couldn't go outside Maliki's party and get support. We'll see how this new guy does. I think both Tehran and Washington wanted Maliki gone.

[MavsSuperFan]

Maliki is pretty horrible, but this new guy is also from the Dawa party. Maybe they couldn't go outside Maliki's party and get support. We'll see how this new guy does. I think both Tehran and Washington wanted Maliki gone.
Why tehran? he was their guy.

Anyways iraq needs a strong man like saddam to hold it together in peace.
Otherwise kurds and sunni have no interest in living under shia rule (democracy is going to lead to shia rule)

[KevinNYC]

Why tehran? he was their guy.

Anyways iraq needs a strong man like saddam to hold it together in peace.
Otherwise kurds and sunni have no interest in living under shia rule (democracy is going to lead to shia rule)

Tehran lost confidence in him. They realized that the willingness of the Sunnis to support ISIS was in part due to his policies.

See this article from June
http://www.mei.edu/content/article/iran%E2%80%99s-moment-truth-maliki

[Real Men Wear Green]

Am I cruel for just not wanting the US involved over there any more? We ****ed up in removing their vicious asshole dictator and are now trying to solve a problem that we just can't solve. The people over there have world views completely different from our own, they hate us for what we've done and there will always be a strong faction that opposes whatever government we prop up. We can go in there and kick a lot of ass to pronounce someone their President or Prime Minister but unless we stay there forever we can't keep that government in power. Throughout human history governments have been based on the weaker grup getting dominated by the stronger group. It even happened here. Time to let it happen in Iraq. Otherwise we can just blow trillions we don't have for the rest of eternity trying to make a western democracy in a country that probably prefers Sharia Law.

I bet if they made a popularity poll in Iraq with the three contestants being bin Laden, Bush and Obama bin Laden would get over half of the first-place votes. These people just don't have anything close to our world view. Let them run their ruined country as they see fit.

[MavsSuperFan]

Am I cruel for just not wanting the US involved over there any more? We ****ed up in removing their vicious asshole dictator and are now trying to solve a problem that we just can't solve. The people over there have world views completely different from our own, they hate us for what we've done and there will always be a strong faction that opposes whatever government we prop up. We can go in there and kick a lot of ass to pronounce someone their President or Prime Minister but unless we stay there forever we can't keep that government in power. Throughout human history governments have been based on the weaker grup getting dominated by the stronger group. It even happened here. Time to let it happen in Iraq. Otherwise we can just blow trillions we don't have for the rest of eternity trying to make a western democracy in a country that probably prefers Sharia Law.

I bet if they made a popularity poll in Iraq with the three contestants being bin Laden, Bush and Obama bin Laden would get over half of the first-place votes. These people just don't have anything close to our world view. Let them run their ruined country as they see fit.

Am I cruel for just not wanting the US involved over there any more?
Not cruel but just negligent we disarmed saddam's army and we removed the baath party. Had we been smart and kept both in place, this likely doesnt happen. I dont think saddam kept people in line. I think his army and the administrators in his government did. We should have co opted the army and the baath party, not dismantle it.

Morally if we just let ISIS massacre yazidi, christians and kurds we are kind of being irresponsible. Bombing really isnt a risky strategy. ISIS has no air defense capabilities.


The people over there have world views completely different from our own, they hate us for what we've done and there will always be a strong faction that opposes whatever government we prop up.

Sunni iraqi arabs and shia iraqi arabs definitely overall dont want us there.

Kurds have always been quite pro american. I hope the kurds get their own state out of all of this.


We can go in there and kick a lot of ass to pronounce someone their President or Prime Minister but unless we stay there forever we can't keep that government in power.

bomb isis to prevent massed assault on kurdish areas. Arm kurds. Kurds have a decent chance of carving out a successful country. (they have oil in their region).

I bet if they made a popularity poll in Iraq with the three contestants being bin Laden, Bush and Obama bin Laden would get over half of the first-place votes. These people just don't have anything close to our world view. Let them run their ruined country as they see fit.

maybe in sunni areas. Shias hate us for completely different reasons.
Kurds like us.

Honestly obama is handling it the right way. Bombing from the air and supporting a pro american group on the ground.
I would just cut the BS and recognize the state of kurdistan (obviously only the iraqi parts, turkey is our ally and iran and syria would be too difficult to break off). break off all ties to the shia government in baghdad and let iran worry about the defense of the holy city of kerbala.

All the money and weapons we would have given to the central government should go to the kurds. They have shown to be relatively secular (willing to take christian and yazidi refugees).

Armed with advanced weaponry the kurds could be formidable.

[Real Men Wear Green]

Not cruel but just negligent we disarmed saddam's army and we removed the baath party. Had we been smart and kept both in place, this likely doesnt happen. I dont think saddam kept people in line. I think his army and the administrators in his government did. We should have co opted the army and the baath party, not dismantle it.
Let me say right off the bat that I'm not sure you're wrong. I just see how profoundly we've failed and how much we've put into this failure that, even had we succeeded, would have given us nothing and I can't see the point in continuing with this.

I may be slightly more knowledgeable than the average American about Iraq but I say that based on the assumption that most of us know nothing. I'm pretty sure you know more about the situation than I do. My problem is that well-educated men and women with (probably) far more information about their society than you have taken trillions of dollars and thousands of soldiers' lives (to say nothing of all the Iraq's that have also died or been harmed) and have accomplished jack shit. In fact, I dare say we have made Iraq far worse. I firmly believe it is time to cut our losses, face the fact that we can't fix everything and focus on our own issues at home. "President RMWG" would probably say, "**** this," pull every American soldier and diplomat out, issue a sincere apology to the people of Iraq and then cut each of the 20 countries that emerge from the mess a check as an insufficient but heartfelt way of making amends, in the hope that we don't see too many anti-US terrorists in their next generation. Though I'm sure that there will be some no matter what we do.

Is it really productive to pick one of the 5,000 potential bad puppet dictators (he will say nice things to Obama while passing laws in his country to prove we don't control him) that doesn't think a woman should be allowed to drive a car? Do we really need to be further involved in this mess? There is no end or profit in sight.

[KevinNYC]

Maliki just stepped down. Will support the new guy. This is most likely good news.


Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister for the past eight years, relinquished the post to his nominated replacement late Thursday, ending a political deadlock that has plunged the country into uncertainty as it fights a Sunni militant insurgency.

Standing alongside fellow Dawa Party member, Haider-al-Abadi, al-Maliki said he was stepping aside in favor of his "brother," in order to "facilitate the political process and government formation."

Al-Maliki said the decision to back al-Abadi reflected his desire to "safeguard the high interests of the country," adding that he would not be the cause of any bloodshed. "My post is your confidence in me," he declared in a televised address.

Al-Maliki has been struggling for weeks to stay on for a third four-year term as prime minister amid an attempt by opponents to push him out, accusing him of monopolizing power and pursuing a fiercely pro-Shiite agenda that has alienated the Sunni minority.

The pressure intensified this week when his Shiite political alliance backed al-Abadi to replace him, and President Fouad Massoum nominated al-Abadi to form the next government. Al-Maliki for days has refused to step aside, threatening legal action against the president for what he said was a violation of the constitution.

But in a meeting of his party earlier Thursday, al-Maliki agreed to endorse al-Abadi as the next prime minister, two senior lawmakers from his State of Law parliamentary bloc - Hussein al-Maliki and Khalaf Abdul-Samad - told the Associated Press.

The lawmakers said al-Maliki also agreed to drop a suit before the constitutional court challenging al-Abadi's nomination.

[MMM]

Maliki is horrible. he tried to cut out sunni and kurds from powerful position and purposely weakened the army in favor of making it more loyal to him.

With that said Iraq just cant work as a democracy. Sunnis, shia and kurds dont want to live in peace together.

They should just split the country. give kurds their areas, sunnis, theirs and shia theirs.

ISIS is powerful because of the legit grips of the sunni community.

Problem with installing democracy in the 3rd world is they don't quite understand it is more complex than majority rule. Heck even mature democracies some time have difficulty in understanding that so you can imagine in the 3rd world. However, with multiple examples of that failure in Africa and south America one would think they would be better prepared to not make similar mistakes.

I would have my doubts about dividing the country along ethnic lines and it would not necessarily ease tensions nor solve the problem if one or more of the ethnic groups felt entitled to more. The powers in region probably won't like the precedent.