[weaver]

On Thurs, May 24 2007 - Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki submitted to Iraq’s legislature a list of six ministers to fill the vacancies left after radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr’s political bloc pulled out of the Cabinet. Al-Maliki also announced that additional changes to his Cabinet are in the works. The Cabinet changes are small compared to the shifts in the Iraqi political system that will result from negotiations between the United States and Iran, prospective changes that motivated al-Sadr’s pullout from the al-Maliki government.

What we are seeing is a temporary shift.. cosmetic.. within the cabinet of Iraq. The REAL work going on is the detente between the US and IRAN. I believe we are beginning to see a shift towards a real government in Iraq that has a middle ground between Iranian objectives and a US pullout on our terms.