Bush to Iraqis: we are in command

And you are not; president tells new government not to ``politicize your military''

The first big clash between the US and the fledgling Iraqi government has occured because Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari and other Shiite officials desire to remove Baathist operatives from the Interior and Defense Ministries, and also disband brutal militias composed of former Saddam loyalists that were developed during the puppet regime of Ayad Allawi. See one, two recent posts in Deep Blade Journal for more details, including about Rumsfeld's emergency trip to Iraq and Azerbaijan three weeks ago. (Added: Rumsfeld issued the same order to Iraq -- don't politicize your military -- on April 12.)

Last night in the national press conference, Bush issued some marching orders to the Iraqis, telling them in no uncertain terms who will design and control their "chain of command." These orders were given in the president's response to a question about when US troops might be withdrawn.

BUSH: ...Thirdly, a fundamental problem has been whether or not there's an established chain of command, whether or not a civilian government can say to the military, here's what you need to do -- and whether the command goes from top to bottom and the plans get executed. And General Petreaus was telling me he's pleased with the progress being made with setting up a command structure, but there's still more work to be done.

One of the real dangers, David, is that as politics takes hold in Iraq, whether or not the civilian government will keep intact the military structure that we're now helping them develop. And my message to the Prime Minister and our message throughout government to the Iraqis is, keep stability; don't disrupt the training that has gone on -- don't politicize your military -- in other words, have them there to help secure the people.

Could the message be more stark? US troops will be in Iraq for a long, long time. The elected government can hardly be considered truly sovereign under this occupation.