Levin the Decider
Senator Carl Levin (D), Chair of the Armed Services Comittee today ordered the elected Iraqi parliament to replace the country's prime minister and his cabinet. He claims that the government is not doing its job. Mr. Levin also believes that the current Republican U.S administration is not doing its job properly- does he support impeachment to replace it as well, and would he condone such a call from al-Maliki or Talibani?
Such a statement by a high ranking senator, a member of the wider US government, only helps undermine claims that Iraq is an independent sovereign nation. The senator should remember that it takes two to tango. Mr Levin should specify how the al-Maliki government can become less 'sectarian' as he demands. Would that entail offering the opposition sensitive cabinet posts such as Interior, Security and Defense, the traditional springboards for Iraqi coups d'etat in the past? Would it entail dividing the cabinet posts based on population? Enlighten us, senator.

At the same time, a Saudi newspaper, al-Riyadh has published an article reviving the quite dead idea of a military take-over in Iraq. The author hints that the right military strongman should come from the 'old' Iraqi army, the same one that threatened the Gulf and Saudi Arabia. Ah, but things have changed so much, the toothpaste has been squeezed out of the tube, the genie is out of the lamp, but then again de Nile is a river in the heart of the Arab world......is it not? The proposal is based on a study purportedly done at NYU. P.S: any study published by anyone in the U.S media or academia is accepted in the Arab world as solid evidence of a U.S government plan.

A fierce media war is being waged more openly now between Syria and Saudi Arabia. In the past, Syria refrained from naming Saudi Arabia directly, even as the Saudi press and media, owned mostly be royal princes, directly criticized the Syrian regime and its policies. Some Saudi-affiliated newpapers in the Gulf even gleefully expected a U.S invasion of Damascus. Now the Syrian have named names in a mild attack, so the Saudi press is intensifying its attack on Syria while pointing out that the Saudi government never ever directly criticizes an Arab government. Clever.

For a short time Arab media carried reports that six Iranian 'diplomats' held by US forces in Iraq have been released. That was earlier today, and by evening the news item was erased from all the websites. It was clear that the report was not true, since no American media carried it at the time.

In Kuwait, State Security agents have kidnapped two journalists from outside their offices and roughed them up. Apparently the kidnap/arrests were without warrants. One journalist was released some hours later but another remains in custody. The claim is that they published seditious ideas on their website. Independent media and Assembly members have warned the government not to engage in illegal acts of kidnapping and holding citizens without warrants.

Looks like Saif al-Islam, son of Libyan leader Qaddafi, is being prepared for the succession, just like the son of President Mubarak in Egypt, and like Bashar Assad before them. Both have assumed high visibility positions in government-controlled agencies. Qaddafi Fils is much more outspoken, though, of his criticism and his calls for 'reform' of the judiciary and the media. Chip of the old block? Still, does anybody believe that the Brother Colonel will pass away anytime soon? It is possible that President Saleh of Yemen is also preparing a son for the throne. Not exactly in the spirit of the res public that the early Romans had in mind when they overthrew their weird and 'obsolete' kings.

Soon the whole Arab world will revive its old bygone glory by becoming hereditary. An Arab citizen can take his pick: a hereditary police-state republic or a hereditary police-state absolute tribal monarchy, with the honorific kleptocracy thrown in the bargain.
Cheers
Mohammed