Another Ally-With-Problems?

The President of Georgia, who seems to think that having the US as an ally means he can tweak the nose of The Bear with impunity, is not our only problem.

Now there are problems with Maliki, President of Iraq.

Reports over the last week have suggested that the Iraqi government, under the direction of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, wants to completely disband the some 99,000 Sunni fighters on the American payroll. That they have been largely credited by the US with chasing al Qaeda out of town seems not to matter to Maliki’s now-emboldened government, which apparently sees them (perhaps rightly so) as a potential threat down the road. In a surprisingly candid admission that got no mainstream news coverage, Gen. David Petreaus said last week that Maliki hasn’t been doing its part to give these Sunnis jobs — as promised — in exchange for their help in The Surge

Oh, great. But that's hardly all:

Two days later, the Los Angeles Times reports Maliki has launched “an aggressive campaign to disband a U.S.-funded force of Sunni Arab fighters that has been key to Iraq’s fragile peace, arresting prominent members and sending others into hiding or exile as their former patrons in the American military reluctantly stand by.”

Well, that's one way to make certain of re-election: simply push the other guys out of the country, or into jail.