As the U.S. Surges, Maliki Purges

When George W. Bush stood before the American people to announce his new way forward in Iraq, otherwise known as "the surge," he stated the following as one of the differences as to why this surge is not like the others that came before:

This time, Iraqi and American forces will have a green light to enter those neighborhoods -- and Prime Minister Maliki has pledged that political or sectarian interference will not be tolerated.

The president went on to quote Prime Minister Maliki directly:

Here is what he told his people just last week: "The Baghdad security plan will not provide a safe haven for any outlaws, regardless of [their] sectarian or political affiliation."

So, a large part of the surge's success was predicated on the prime minister and his new heavy-handed approach with his own base. From the start it was pretty clear, for those of us who did not believe in ponies, that such reliance on Maliki was foolish, if not deadly. Today, the Washington Post reports that despite the president's assurances that this time things would be different, like a drunken, cheating husband asking for another chance, it turns out things are not so different after all:

A department of the Iraqi prime minister's office is playing a leading role in the arrest and removal of senior Iraqi army and national police officers, some of whom had apparently worked too aggressively to combat violent Shiite militias, according to U.S. military officials in Baghdad.

Since March 1, at least 16 army and national police commanders have been fired, detained or pressured to resign; at least nine of them are Sunnis, according to U.S. military documents shown to The Washington Post.

Although some of the officers appear to have been fired for legitimate reasons, such as poor performance or corruption, several were considered to be among the better Iraqi officers in the field. The dismissals have angered U.S. and Iraqi leaders who say the Shiite-led government is sabotaging the military to achieve sectarian goals.

If this coordinated, sectarian, military purge does not prove, once and for all, that the United States is being played the fool by Maliki (and his true master, al-Sadr) then I do not know what will.

Update: Speaking of being played the fool:

Five U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq over the weekend, raising the number of American troops killed this month to over 100 and making April one of the deadliest of the war for U.S. forces.