Category: Uncategorised

The problem with the comments should now be fixed. Sorry about that!

I hope [this](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/12/world/middleeast/12iraq.html?ei=5090&en=74b3dc217e1b9437&ex=1323579600&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all) article is the result of “Iraqi officials” messing with the New York Times:

>After discussions with the Bush administration, several of Iraq’s major political parties are in talks to form a coalition whose aim is to break the powerful influence of the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr within the government, senior Iraqi officials say.

The US wanting to form a new coalition – I can live with that. The idealist in me says that Iraqi politics should happen without international meddling, but I realise that isn’t going to happen. Openly making it a specifically anti-Sadr coalition, though? That’s just going to needlessly piss off Sadr and his followers. Worse, openly making it an _American-backed_ anti-Sadr coalition. No way that’ll energise the Shiite militias, is there?

You’ve just staged a military coup on a Pacific island, but your cronies don’t seem up to the job of running the country. What do you do? You take out newspaper ads to recruit your cabinet, of course.