Crazy Ass Nouri al-Maliki, aka Little Saddam and The Butcher of Baghdad, made it through customs and into the United States last week. He should have been promptly arrested.
That didn't happen.
For Paul Richter (Los Angeles Times), the most surprising thing was:
Facing a deadly resurgence of Al Qaeda in Iraq, President Obama signaled Friday that he would begin increasing U.S. military support for Baghdad after five years of reducing it.
The new U.S. plan
represents a remarkable shift for Obama, whose administration trumpeted
the 2011 withdrawal of the last U.S. troops from Iraq as a major
achievement and has since shifted its attention to other regional
challenges, such as Syria, Egypt and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
That was surprising. Equally surprising was his appearing at the US Institute of Peace in DC Thursday and asking the US and the entire world to join him in World War Three:
"We
want an international war against terrorism," Maliki said in a speech
to the United States Institute of Peace, calling Al-Qaeda and its ilk "a
virus" which was trying to spread "a dirty wind" around the region.
"If
we have had two world wars, we want a third world war against those who
are killing people, killing populations, who are calling for bloodshed,
for ignorance and do not want logic to govern our daily lives."
He came to the US and issued a call for World War III.
And in a sign of sickness, he wasn't immediately expelled.
All Nouri knows is violence. It's what he preaches, it's what he brings to the table.
The editorial board of the Guardian noted:
Much of the current tension is a direct result of what an influential group of US senators called the authoritarian and sectarian style of the Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. He has all but torn up a political powersharing agreement the Americans negotiated with the Sunnis, and driven many of their number into the arms of al-Qaida. This in turn has led to the remobilisation of Shia militias.
Nouri breeds the violence. Bloomberg News explained, "Given this violence, and the enormous investment the U.S. has made in Iraq’s future, President Barack Obama has to be forceful with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki when they meet at the White House tomorrow: More weapons, as Maliki has asked for, will not help end the slaughter. The imperative is for Maliki, a Shiite, to share power with Iraq’s Sunni minority." Even UNAMI last week noted that the lack of power-sharing (and demonizing opponents) was causing the violence in Iraq:
The Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq (SRSG), Mr. Nickolay Mladenov used the opportunity to call on the political leaders of Iraq to address the root causes of division, exclusion and poverty and to build an inclusive society that does not fear, but celebrates ethnic and religious diversity. He spoke of the areas where Iraq has seen notable gains, but also focused on the many challenges that remain. "Today Iraq is riven by constant and worsening violence and the prospect of deepening sectarianism casts a dark shadow over the country" Mladenov noted, adding that the social and security challenges "threaten the very fabric of Iraqi society and test the extent of the nation’s social cohesion". He highlighted that reversing the cycle of violence requires "improving governance in ways that give all citizens equal access to security, justice, employment and essential services".
As the editorial board of The Economist pointed out, "What Mr Maliki needs more than weapons is the will to compromise with his political opponents, especially Sunnis but also Kurds. In the past year Sunnis have felt more and more excluded and harassed. In addition, the civil strife churning up Syria has spilt across the border into Iraq."
Demonstrating that he just didn't get it, Nouri stood up in public and called for World War Three.
Sane people should find that call frightening.
Illustration is Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "I See Ba'athists."