Which terrorist or hate group's goals and worldview do you wish you you understood better?

When the last American troops leave, Maliki begins a pretty concerted crackdown on the Sunni population.

The previous fall, Hadley had authored a memo warning that Maliki’s government was becoming increasingly sectarian. Reports of nondelivery of services to Sunni areas, removal of Iraq’s most effective commanders on a sectarian basis and efforts to ensure Shia majorities in all ministries, all suggest a campaign to consolidate Shia power in Baghdad.

Middle East politics is a full contact sport. It’s a survival game. And as Maliki figures out that the White House is just really not that vested in Iraq, he’ll take matters into his own hands.

Within months, the old Iraq hands were getting word that Maliki was beginning to consolidate power and increasing sectarian tension.

In 2009, there are complaints coming out of Iraq that Maliki, who was initially criticized as too weak, is now being criticized as too strong and too authoritarian and increasingly sectarian.

The Iraqi army, trained and equipped by the Americans, was one of Maliki’s first targets.

He begins to de-professionalize the military, removing Sunni commanders, replacing them with Shia commanders. He’s concerned about the reliability of the armed forces.

Maliki gets rid of a lot of well-trained commanders in the Iraqi army and replaces them with political loyalists. It’s as if he’s more worried about a coup than he is in having an effective military because what good is an effective military if it’s against you.

And in the Sunni heartland, Petraeus’s “Sons of Iraq” were quickly becoming enemies of the state.

He began to take exception to the Sons of Iraq, which all came from the Sunni tribes. He stopped paying them. Not only that, he began to purge some of them and actually attacked and killed some of them.

The American ambassador, James Jeffrey, knew Maliki was a problem.

Then when the last American troops leave, he begins a pretty concerted crackdown on the Sunni population.

Just one day after the last American soldier left, an arrest warrant was issued for Maliki’s rival, the country’s Sunni vice president, Tariq al Hashimi. They accused him of running death squads and assassinating political enemies, charges he denied.

In the months that followed, Maliki would go after others. The offices of the Sunni finance minister were raided. Sunni leaders were detained. Mass protests broke out in Sunni provinces.

It was a catalyst for a renewed sense among the Sunni Arab population that they once again didn’t have a seat at the table in their country and that their leaders were targeted by the government. And that had a very, very harmful effect.

The tenuous peace between the Sunnis and Shi’ites was broken. Political protesters in a Sunni town were brutally attacked.

I think that the goal he had was very clear—- “I am going to use every element of power to both advance my own interests and that of creating a stable Shi’ite control of this state.”

Maliki’s game plan for the future of Iraq is to consolidate Shia power and basically putting Sunnis in a subservient position. What he sees with the American departure is an opportunity to implement this. There’s not going to be any Americans in his way.

I tried redacting this, or putting it in context but there was literally too much, and it was all over the video.

Anyways, I suggest you check out the article - Frontlines: Losing Iraq

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