When Iraqis Gave Up on Government ... Sorry they ever took part in the elections

BAGHDAD (IPS) - The Iraqi government headed by Prime Minister Noori al-Maliki, like earlier governments assigned by U.S. occupation authorities in Iraq, appears to have killed Iraqi dreams of a brighter future.

General elections Dec. 15, 2005 brought in a government that was supposed to listen to Iraqis all over the country. It was called a unity government because the cabinet was formed to include ministers from all ethnic and sectarian backgrounds after months of negotiations in the parliament.

"This is a unity government that no one should object to," al-Maliki told reporters recently in Baghdad. "All of the powers in parliament should take part in improving security and services in order to achieve success."

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"We are not really in the government," Tariq al-Hashimi, leader of the Islamic Party, and one of Iraq's two vice-presidents told IPS earlier. "Maliki and his coalition never gave us any real role in the government, and our ministers' actions are therefore paralysed."

Hashimi's group, like other Sunni groups and also some moderate Shia groups, are nearly voiceless in the feeble Iraqi government.

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Al-Ani cited recent polls to say that more than 90 percent of Iraqis are angry with the government. People continue to blame the government for everything going wrong from the high level of violence to lack of employment and of water and electricity.

One of the darkest clouds of illegitimacy over the Iraqi government is the alignment of top officials with the Sadr Movement, which has been accused of backing most of the sectarian death squads that are now the leading cause of death in Iraq.

"This government failed on all the promises it made to Iraqis, and so all Iraqis want it changed," Muhammad Basher al-Faidhy, spokesman for the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars told IPS. "They are sorry they ever took part in the elections. Our Association warned Iraqis that this government would be the worst ever. They simply cannot get rid of death squads because they are their major ally."

Most Iraqis see no future for Maliki's struggling government, which barely controls the so-called Green Zone in Baghdad where its offices are located. The rest of the country is fragmented, and the economy and infrastructure are in ruins.