Iraq Government Powerless To Stop Malitias.

So here is a good idea of the problem in Iraq, Muqtada Al-Sadr, in an interview aired Saturday by Al-Jazeera television, said his Mahdi Army was capable of "liberating Iraq" and maintained al-Maliki's government was as "distant" from the people as Saddam Hussein's.

Now before you go assuming that Al-Jazeera is the problem, they are only the messenger. The message is that the major factions of the resistance in Iraq believes that the Al-Maliki government is impotent and not in touch with the Iraqi people. That is a signal that the government will have a big problem regaining any sense of authority in the country.

Al-Maliki’s threats against the Mahdi Army had no teeth. Fighting continues and in fact much of Baghdad and Basra are under Mahdi Army or other militia control. The prime minister’s threats aside, there seems to be no real plan other than to resist the militias with force.

Now the original 72 hour ultimatum has been extended to April 8. IN other words, the government is admitting they cannot stop things, so they change the ultimatum. That is a sign of weakness and what I suspect will end in failure.