The Iraqi Electoral Mess

I haven't written much about the Iraqi electoral stalemate lately, figuring that specialized bloggers like Reidar Visser and Juan Cole are providing the details so I don't have to. ‘Iyad ‘Allawi's latest proposal — an interim government and new elections — might make sense in a mature democracy facing such a stalemated result, but it is sternly opposed by (sitting) Prime Minister Maliki.

Although the US military keeps saying the drawdown of US forces is on track, it's hard to see the US simply leaving if there's no semblance of a government in place.I hope that various upcoming judicial and other rulings will clarify things, but if they don't, I am starting to worry that we may have an emerging problem here. I'm not so alarmist as to start talking about incipient civil war, as some pessimists do at the drop of a hat, but I do think Iraq needs to find a way out of the present stalemate sooner rather than later.

So far, the US seems to be keeping hands off the process, which is probably good. (‘Allawi already has the problem of being seen as America's man; he doesn't need us to reinforce it). But this can't go on forever.