Leaked Memo Backfires

Clumsy.

Talk about sending a message before a meeting. Mr. Bush is nothing if not obtuse.
But I guess when you've lost all credibility and most of your power in the Middle
East, you might as well act like an ass. What have you got to lose?

Bush is now finding out.

According to MSNBC, the Maliki summit has been postponed. Obviously, Maliki
has to make sure he's not being undercut from both sides, Sadr and Bush. Wait until Baker – Hamiliton comes back and puts Iran into the mix. Mr. Bush is likely to unravel even further.

Here's part of the memo, which The New York Times printed online. It's stunning.

Despite Maliki’s reassuring words, repeated reports from our commanders on the ground contributed to our concerns about Maliki’s government. Reports of nondelivery of services to Sunni areas, intervention by the prime minister’s office to stop military action against Shia targets and to encourage them against Sunni ones, removal of Iraq’s most effective commanders on a sectarian basis and efforts to ensure Shia majorities in all ministries — when combined with the escalation of Jaish al-Mahdi’s (JAM) [the Arabic name for the Mahdi Army] killings — all suggest a campaign to consolidate Shia power in Baghdad. (snip) His intentions seem good when he talks with Americans, and sensitive reporting suggests he is trying to stand up to the Shia hierarchy and force positive change. But the reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action. (snip) There is a range of actions that Maliki could take to improve the information he receives, demonstrate his intentions to build an Iraq for all Iraqis and increase his capabilities. The actions listed below are in order of escalating difficulty and, at some point, may require additional political and security resources to execute, as described on Page 3 of this memo. Maliki should: ¶Compel his ministers to take small steps — such as providing health services and opening bank branches in Sunni neighborhoods — to demonstrate that his government serves all ethnic communities; ¶Bring his political strategy with Moktada al-Sadr to closure and bring to justice any JAM actors that do not eschew violence; ¶Shake up his cabinet by appointing nonsectarian, capable technocrats in key service (and security) ministries; ¶Announce an overhaul of his own personal staff so that “it reflects the face of Iraq”; ¶Demand that all government workers (in ministries, the Council of Representatives and his own offices) publicly renounce all violence for the pursuit of political goals as a condition for keeping their positions; ¶Declare that Iraq will support the renewal of the U.N. mandate for multinational forces and will seek, as appropriate, to address bilateral issues with the United States through a SOFA [status of forces agreement] to be negotiated over the next year; ¶Take one or more immediate steps to inject momentum back into the reconciliation process, such as a suspension of de-Baathification measures and the submission to the Parliament or “Council of Representatives” of a draft piece of legislation for a more judicial approach; ¶Announce plans to expand the Iraqi Army over the next nine months; and ¶Declare the immediate suspension of suspect Iraqi police units and a robust program of embedding coalition forces into MOI [Ministry of the Interior] units while the MOI is revetted and retrained. Text of U.S. Security Adviser’s Iraq Memo Â

So the next time Bush complains about leaks perhaps he should police his own. This was destructive. If it was intentionally leaked it was just plain stupid.