al-Maliki's New Coalition

Under intense pressure to get the Bush-backed Iraqi oil law passed, al-Maliki has formed a new alliance with "moderate Shiites and Kurds", basically leaving the Sunnis out in the cold.

At the news conference announcing the accord, al-Maliki was flanked by President Jalal Talabani, the leader of the northern autonomous Kurdish region, elder statesman Massoud Barzani and Shiite Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi.

The four men signed a three-page agreement they said ensures them a majority in the 275-member parliament that would allow action on legislation demanded by the U.S.
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Their parties the Shiite Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and Dawa and the Kurdish Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Democratic Party of Kurdistan hold a total of 181 seats.

Al-Maliki called on the Sunni Accordance Front, which is the largest Sunni bloc with 44 seats and includes al-Hashemi's party, to return to the government and heal a rift that opened when the bloc's five Cabinet ministers quit the government.

The four-party agreement was unveiled four weeks before the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker are to deliver a progress report on Iraq to Congress.

Thus the timing. How convenient - but not for the Sunnis, some of whom called for referendum on the law last month.

Reacting to the news, the head of Iraq's Islamic Party had this to say:

...leader of the party, Sunni Vice-President Tariq Hashemi, told the BBC that the current political situation was "not conducive to creating new political blocs".

"There are many differences over how to manage the security situation and deal with those in power committing flagrant human rights violations. They can't be deemed moderates," he said.

"The government's performance vis-a-vis human rights must be improved."

On the Washington front, it is expected that Petraeus' September surge report will show "a mixed picture" concerning the political developments. This move by al Maliki will definitely be touted as a major accomplishment by the Bush administration despite the blow to the Sunnis.

Meanwhile, Petraeus will apparently report troop redployments (not reductions) in furtherance of his his whack-a-mole counterinsurgency strategy and, as the Washington Post reported on Thursday, the Bush administration seems to be attempting to shield Petraeus from testifying publicly about his report in September, voicing preferences to send Condi and Gates to do the heavy lifting spin-doctoring instead.

Petraeus and Crocker have said repeatedly that they plan to testify after delivering private assessments to Bush. U.S. military and diplomatic officials in Baghdad appeared puzzled yesterday when told that the White House had indicated that the two may not be appearing in public.

They should know by now that Commander Guy™ will do whatever he needs to to cover up his failures.

All of this is, of course, occurring against the back drop of the horrendous suicide bombings of Iraqi Yazidis in northern Iraq on Wednesday. That death toll is slowly creeping up with the number of dead now being reported as totaling anywhere from 300 - 500 which, as Time magazine notes in its article The Surge's Short Shelf Life, would make it "the deadliest terrorist operation in the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein."

Hardly a sign of progress but I imagine both parties, the Republicans and Democrats will simply push the "let's just wait a bit more before we do anything" mantra in September, citing whatever "successes" they can eek out of Petraeus' report while Iraqis and coalition soldiers continue to die and al-Maliki further marginalizes the Sunni population while the entire country still exists in a nightmarish shambles.