Malcontent Maliki

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki and the White House have been exchanging blows in recent months, with the White House accusing Maliki of incompetence, ineptitude, and, in a more subtle manner, a possible bias towards his religious sect, the Shias. Maliki, who has explicitly expressed disdain for his position, has countered with similar accusations of ineptitude. He currently argues that the insurgency has grown because the U.S. has not provided adequate guns and equipment, and that if the Iraqis were provided with such equipment the U.S. could significantly draw down its troops over the next few months.

"If we succeed in implementing the agreement between us to speed up the equipping and providing weapons to our military forces, I think that within three to six months our need for the American troops will dramatically go down."

By all accounts, the Iraqis are using outdated weaponry, so I'll grant him that. However, it is also well documented that Iraqi soldiers are terribly unreliable and extremely sectarian, leaving the U.S., for all intents and purposes, the sole security force in Iraq. As such, the main problem cannot be a lack of adequate weaponry. Maliki knows this. He also knows that now is the perfect opportunity to push back much of the blame forced upon him by the White House while the debate in this country is beginning to climax in the aftermath of the Democrats sweep. Bush certainly deserves every bit of the criticism he is receiving, but the Iraqis could be doing much more to stem the chaos. Better guns is not the answer.