What
Maliki chooses to ignore and what Ban Ki-moon has singled out is
precisely what the protest movement has been demanding all along:
looking at the root causes of the problems. In Iraq's case, they are
sectarianism, corruption, lack of basic services, violations of human
rights, increasing unemployment and organized gangs and militias
flourishing under a kleptocratic government.
The Maliki government has been harvesting over $100bn a year
for some time now, from the nation's oil wealth. That amounts to about
$20,000 a year per average Iraqi household of 7 people, except that
Iraqis are left deprived of basic commodities. The wealth is squandered
or stolen, a situation illustrated by Transparency International
as: "Massive embezzlement, procurement scams, money laundering, oil
smuggling and widespread bureaucratic bribery have led the country to
the bottom of international corruption rankings, fuelled political
violence and hampered effective state building and service delivery."
-- Haifa Zangana, "The real forces behind the violence in Iraq" (MWC News).