Condi's heavy hand on the Iraqis

``Démarche''

What? Sovereign?

Times:

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 3 — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Jack Straw, the British foreign minister, forcefully demanded today that the Iraqi leadership form a unified government as quickly as possible to end a power vacuum in which sectarian bloodletting has been rampant.

There is a sense that all of this is getting out of control. It became no secret last week that President Bush wants Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al Jaafari out. According to a source cited by Juan Cole, the maneuvers associated with the surprise visit to Baghdad may just represent a ``successful'' effort to ``break up the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance bloc in parliament and to sideline Ibrahim Jaafari.''

So much for Iraqi sovereignty. As Iraqis exert independence from its American occupiers, the American fist pounds back. The true level of violence the US actually promotes is not much discussed, but evidence is that Americans are actually the source of quite a bit of it. It's a dangerous game. I have my doubts that squelching of the violence is high on the list of Rice's priorities.