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Length: 1:42
LOU DOBBS: The Iraqi government of Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki is incapable of stopping the
escalating sectarian violence. One reason may be the
close ties between al-Maliki's government and radical
Islamists led by the anti-American cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr.
Michael Ware in Baghdad with our report.
Michael, is the Iraqi government powerless? Is anyone
paying any attention to the Iraqi prime minister?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lou, the first
question, really, is there an Iraqi government at
all? Beyond the office of Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki and his national security adviser, this
government is more an alignment of Shia militias than
it is any kind of effective administration.
Many of the elements within the ministries dominated
by these militias take their cues not from a
relatively powerless prime minister who himself does
not have men at arms, the currency of political power
in Iraq. But they take those cues from their militia
leaders and their political party leaders.
Many of them, according to U.S. and British
intelligence, backed by Iranian Revolutionary Guard,
Quds Force or specialist intelligence officers. So
whether anyone's following the directives of the
prime minister really is not that much in question.
Maliki is trying to make an imprint on the violence
here and on the militias, the fundamental building
blocks of this government. Yet, as you can tell with
the escalating bloodshed, there is very, very real
limits to what power he has -- Lou.