Talks under way to replace Iraq PM
By Hamza Hendawi and Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Associated Press Writers

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Major partners in Iraq's governing coalition are in behind-the-scenes talks to oust Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki amid discontent over his failure to quell raging violence, according to lawmakers involved.

The talks are aimed at forming a new parliamentary bloc that would seek to replace the current government and that would likely exclude supporters of the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is a vehement opponent of the U.S. military presence.

[Savor the whole thing.]

I wish the source for this was something other than AP, but maybe it's cause for hope. If al-Maliki isn't on the way out it's past time for our government to help him be on the way out, even if it means W needs to ask his buddy Vladimir for some "pest control" advice. al-Maliki is al-Sadr's guardian angel and al-Sadr's on Iran's payroll. We need someone at the top in Iraq who'll see al-Sadr as the enemy and let us take care of him like we should have months ago. Doing so's going to be messy -- I saw an estimate recently of 30,000 jihadis that will have to be killed or locked away -- but not doing it will be worse in the long run. 

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Maliki Out? 
Ed Morrissey

It appears that events have begun to pick up pace in Iraq. First a broad agreement seems to have coalesced around revenue sharing for Iraq's oil production, and now it looks like Nouri al-Maliki might be getting the heave as Prime Minister:

Major partners in Iraq's governing coalition are in behind-the-scenes talks to oust Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki amid discontent over his failure to quell raging violence, according to lawmakers involved.

The talks are aimed at forming a new parliamentary bloc that would seek to replace the current government and that would likely exclude supporters of the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is a vehement opponent of the U.S. military presence.

Back in March, the thinking was that by allowing a Sadr ally to form the government, it might encourage Sadr to end his efforts to gain power through violence. That has obviously failed, and failed badly. As I wrote earlier today, it torpedoed the efforts to get the Sunni and Ba'athist insurgents to end their campaigns, and Sadr has only gotten worse ever since.

Maliki needs to go, and go soon. Engaging Sadr doesn't work, and the US should return to our previous policy of targeting him and his Mahdi army lieutenants if they refuse to disarm. Thanks to Maliki, he has infiltrated the Interior ministry, so he will present a difficult opponent if he chooses to fight it out. However, Sadr makes a better power broker than a general, as he has proven several times now. Without Maliki running interference, he will be more exposed than ever.

And guess who has apparently given his blessing to the change? Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. ...

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Allahpundit has more here.

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Big News, About Time
Jules Crittenden

A parliamentary coup appears to be in the offing in Iraq, as the AP reports talks are underway to ditch Nouri al-Maliki by parties tired of his inability to stem the violence. This is shaping up to be a long-overdue message to Iran -- not the one the mullahs thought they were getting with the ISG's report last week -- and perhaps the start of a decisive move against Iran's agents in Iraq. No wonder George Bush has been a little stand-offish about the Innane Strategy Guesswork recommendations.

The effort would appear to have the support of the United States. The new government would exclude Moqtada al-Sadr's people. The effort is being led by Shiite pol Abdul Aziz al-Hakim who recently met with Bush, and involves Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, left for Washington yesterday for a meeting with Bush. ...

Sounds like a bold and dangerous move in the right direction, that could lead to more violence short term, but may also give U.S. and Iraqi forces the excuse they need to crush al-Sadr and his militia. If they are ready to ... and we can only hope this isn't going ahead before they are ready to. As evidenced by the Sadrists threat to pull out of the government during al-Maliki's trip to Jordan, they are politically weaker than they have appeared to be, so maybe the time is right. ...

*** Update and bump. Original timestamp 2006.12.10.22:20

President Bush's Way Forward
Hatched by Dafydd

I heard a strange rumor a couple of days ago, but I couldn't find any substantiation, so I didn't blog on it. But of a sudden, it has burst forth in the form of an article on Yahoo by a couple of AP stringers, Hamza Hendawi and Qassim Abdul-Zahra. (I Googled them, but they appear to be run-of-the-mill reporters; I didn't see anything weird or suspicious about either reporter.)

It appears that there is now a serious push, backed (and possibly fomented) by the Bush Administration, to oust the incompetent Nouri al-Maliki, number-two in the (Shiite) Islamic Dawa Party, from his position as Iraqi prime minister. The ouster would be entirely legal, in the form of a vote of no confidence, which requires only a simple majority of the members of parliament.

I suspect replacing Maliki is one of the "new directions in Iraq" Bush has had in mind for some time, hence his own version of "the way forward," to counter the "diplomatic offensive" and draw-down recommended by the Iraq Study Group (the Baker-Hamilton commission).

(Captain Ed blogged about this earlier, but I didn't see his post until after I wrote this. Still, we tackle different aspects of the same story; both are worth reading!)

The talks are aimed at forming a new parliamentary bloc that would seek to replace the current government and that would likely exclude supporters of the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is a vehement opponent of the U.S. military presence. ...

For those keeping score, that's two of the top politicians in the bloc both meeting with President Bush within a week of each other: there is no question but that the Bush administration is at least closely involved with the attempt to oust Maliki.

Maliki has long been unable -- or unwilling -- to do anything to rein in the murderous Mahdi Militia; which is hardly surprising, since that militant death squad is led by Maliki's own master (and Iranian puppet), Muqtada Sadr. Sadr has almost single-handedly kept Maliki in power, having planted him on the petal throne last May. And so long as the Mahdi continues to murder Iraqis by the thousands, its rivals among the Sunni tribes (including both al-Qaeda and renegade former Baathists) and even among other Shiite groups (include the Badr Brigades, now called the Badr Organization, of SCIRI) will refuse to stand down.

Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Militia is believed to be responsible for the majority of the internecine butchery in Iraq; if they were to lose power, perhaps along with Maliki's Dawa Party, it would be a strong blow to Iran, Sadr's patron: while SCIRI too has some ties to Iran, they are nowhere near as deep as Dawa's... whose leader, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, is the former and equally incompetent prime minister (Maliki is merely the deputy leader, even though he is the current PM).

Both Dawa and SCIRI were based in Teheran during the Iran-Iraq war, and both received support from Iran; but SCIRI has no equivalent to the Iranian agent Muqtada Sadr... who, while not being a member of any established party, has forged a very close working relationship with Maliki, serving as Iran's conduit into the heart of the Iraqi government. ...