Word: shying
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Minister Nouri al-Maliki. After a phone conference with the Iraqi leader, Pres. Bush said al-Maliki had promised U.S. forces would be given a free hand, and that "political or sectarian interference will not be tolerated." Such interference has in the past blighted U.S. efforts to curb the Shi'ite militias responsible for most of the sectarian killing, especially in Baghdad...
...Here's the problem: the person who did most of the interfering, arguably, was al-Maliki himself. Although he nominally heads an all-party, national unity government, al-Maliki is a Shi'ite partisan, and he has pursued a blatantly sectarian course in the eight months since he was sworn in, antagonizing Sunnis and allowing Shi'ite militias to run amok. His main political backing comes from Moqtada al-Sadr, the firebrand leader of the most dangerous militia, the Mahdi Army. In his speeches, al-Maliki routinely promises to deal firmly with the militias, but in practice, he has always...
...question is whether the sectarian tumult surrounding his execution will lend Saddam a new stature, allowing his loyalists to portray him not as a convicted killer but as a victim, mercilessly lynched by a vengeful, U.S.-backed Shi'ite government. Indeed, some have been planning to do so all along. One afternoon last October, I watched the televised Saddam trial in the company of Abu Hamza, a former senior officer in the Republican Guard. Watching his former boss sitting sullenly in the dock, Abu Hamza shook his head. Even a loyal follower could see no dignity there. Then...
...think the tyrant got a raw deal. His trial, though flawed and highly compromised by violence, ultimately resulted in a just verdict supported by the evidence. The trouble is that because the court that tried Saddam was set up by the occupying power and run by a partisan Shi'ite government, few Sunnis believed the proceedings were legitimate, or accepted the court's verdict as impartial. And that was before the ghastly scenes of last Saturday morning. Now you'd be lucky to find a Sunni willing to concede he should have been tried...
...card Maliki always held was his alliance with the political bloc led by Moqtada al-Sadr, the head of the Shi'a Mahdi militia. This includes 30 parliamentarians and six cabinet members. Maliki was seen as one person who might be able to exercise some sway over Sadr and his lawless sectarian army. But it became clear that influence flowed only one way between Sadr and Maliki in October, when U.S. forces seized Sadr aide Sheik Mazin al-Saedi, a suspected organizer of kidnapping rings and death squads. Maliki immediately called for Saedi's release, and the U.S. military complied...