As he continues to wrangle for a third term of office, Iraq's acting premier, Nouri Al-Maliki must be judged on his record, not his constant protestations that he is devoted to a united Iraq. It is hard to identify a single step that this politician has taken that in any way demonstrates that the unity of his country has ever been his overriding concern. Rather, at every turn, Maliki has acted in ways that could not have been better designed to destroy Iraq as a functioning state. From his legal pursuit of former Vice President Tariq Al-Hashemi, a Sunni, to his cutting of state payments due to the autonomous Kurdish region, Maliki appears to have gone out of his way to antagonize the non-Shia parts of the country. Even as ISIS terrorists flowed south toward the capital after their sensational capture of Mosul, Maliki continued with his divisive policies. The Kurds offered military support. An attack in their rear might at least have slowed the ISIS advance on Baghdad. Incredibly, Maliki rejected the Kurdish proposal, preferring instead to arm tens of thousands of Shia civilians, who will surely be cannon fodder in the face of the battle-hardened ISIS terrorists. Moreover, Maliki has now demonstrated that he is prepared to sup with the devil himself in a vain attempt to stem the military disaster that is facing his people. He has confirmed that on Wednesday Syrian warplanes attacked ISIS terrorists inside Iraq itself. Accepting succor from the blood-stained regime of Bashar Assad is the greatest folly. It has long been known that Maliki gave covert support to Assad and permitted Iranian overflights of Iraq as Tehran shipped weapons and men to the regime. However, by now admitting the relationship by publicizing the Syrian air attacks, Maliki has undermined his call for US air support. There are US special forces “advising” the Iraqi army on the front line and Americans are reorganizing the apparently chaotic central military command in Baghdad. But the ever-cautious Barack Obama has held off committing airpower. In the light of Maliki's revelation, is he now prepared to have US warplanes fighting alongside those of Assad's air force, an air force which has been involved in the dropping of poison gas on Syrian rebels? Either Maliki is a poorly-advised idiot or there is a greater agenda here. The Iranians have said that they will not involve themselves in fighting the ISIS. They have nevertheless also sent military advisers to Baghdad. How closely these soldiers are working with the Americans would be interesting to know. If there is no operational contact then Iraqi commanders may be receiving two sets of military advice which is surely likely to be conflicting. Tehran, which has done so much to encourage Maliki in his boneheaded pursuit of divisive policies, has surely drawn its own line in the sand. That would be the moment when it looked as if Maliki's battered forces were on the point of being overrun, Baghdad lost and the Shia heartland in the south seriously threatened. If this line was crossed, would Iran take the deadly and destabilizing step of committing ground troops, with the terrifying ramifications this would bring? Maliki already has much to answer for to his own betrayed and suffering people. If he now promotes regional conflict, history will judge him even more harshly.
