Word: maliki
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...military must withdraw, and soon--and while they disagree fiercely about whether the end of 2011 is soon enough, the debate has brought together some unlikely bedfellows. Sunni hard-liners joined Shi'ites loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in opposing the deal, while Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki won enthusiastic backing from Anbar province sheiks ordinarily scornful of his government...
Opponents of the SOFA want the U.S. military to leave Iraq sooner than the 2012 deadline that al-Maliki is pushing for. But many of the sheiks are leaders of the Awakening Councils, the U.S.-funded paramilitaries that helped drive al-Qaeda out of Anbar. They - and thousands of their men - receive salaries from the U.S. military, and they don't want their paymasters to leave any sooner than absolutely necessary...
...democratic kind. With Iraq-wide provincial elections two months away, these Anbari chieftains have banded together under the banner of the Iraqi Tribal Front, and will field candidates in several provinces. So after the compound has filled up, the chanting turns distinctly political. "We are with Nouri al-Maliki on SOFA," they shout, referring to the status of forces agreement that the Iraqi Prime Minister has signed, amid considerable domestic opposition, with...
There's another political motivation behind their support of al-Maliki and the SOFA. The agreement is opposed by the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), the Sunni party loathed by the sheiks. The IIP won control of the Anbar provincial government in the last election, when most of the sheiks boycotted the vote. Now the chieftains want to supplant the IIP as the main voice of Iraq's Sunnis. Backing the SOFA and al-Maliki allows them to distinguish themselves from the IIP. The sheiks, in short, are playing democratic politics...
...Many Iraqis believe the al-Maliki government will string the SOI along while U.S. troops remain in the country. When the Americans have left, there will be a reckoning - and it could well be bloody...