Checkmate?

MANIFESTO

If Prime Minister of Iraq wasn’t the worst job in the world already, it’s getting closer by the hour. One of the stronger domestic political players just upped the ante and shrewdly leveraged the growing rift between Baghdad and Washington. Anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr convinced 30 Iraqi Members of Parliament and 6 Ministers loyal to his party to walk away from the Maliki Government in protest to his meeting with W.

Now that Al-Maliki has been publicly humiliated by the White House he doesn’t have many places left he can turn for support. Al-Maliki knows that not only is the US looking towards the exits, but seems poised to invite Iran in. Option one is to ignore domestic pressures and reconcile with the despised and seemingly soon to depart American Occupational Authority. The second is to turn to the populist Shia cleric who heads the political party necessary to keep the ruling coalition intact, has his own militia, and is closely aligned with Iran. If self-preservation is an instinct Al-Maliki possesses, something tells me it will be the latter.

Will this elevate Al-Sadar to the status of king maker and radically shift the balance of power within the Iraqi government closer to total Shia control? If so, it doesn’t bode well for American troops on the ground or the prospect of ending sectarian violence and creating a secular democracy.