Sunday, February 27, 2011

Being Responsive

The road to rule of law and the suppression of corruption  in Iraq is surely long. But after nationwide protests, Prime Minister Maliki at least as the good sense to appear to react to public outrage:

Iraq's prime minister, following a string of deadly anti-government protests, gave his ministers on Sunday 100 days to improve their performance or risk being fired....

"The performance of the government and the ministries will each be evaluated separately in order to know the extent of success or failure in carrying out the duties given to them," the statement read. It also stressed that each minister must answer for corruption — a key complaint for Iraqis — in their ministries.

Iraq has a long way to go to stand on their feet without reverting to an authoritarian model of governing.

I really want a fairly robust American military presence in Iraq after this year as a visible signal of our interest in the development of Iraq, to hold the ring of Iraqi politics to make sure that they keep disagreements political and not violent, to deter Iran and Syria, and to see that progress towards rule of law is made.