I was sitting through a briefing on Iraq today and it got me thinking about Maliki. He is increasingly looking like a nonentity to me. He has generally appeared to defer to al-Sadr and the Saddam execution did nothing to disabuse the notion that the Mahdi Army has undue influence. It is hardly a secret that he is in power because of political support from al-Sadr but I don't think anyone expected him to be so beholden to al-Sadr. At best he seems to be just another talking head in Baghdad and at worst an actual impediment to peace. I am hoping that if we can manage to create some security in Iraq that perhaps fewer people will feel the need to join or remain in the militias which may reduce some of al-Sadr's power and allow Maliki to act like the leader of Iraq instead of the leader of Shia Iraq.

SFC W