What Our Troops Are Fighting For

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has apparently set up a sectarian shadow government.

CNN has the story. Here's a taste:

Iraq's prime minister has created an entity within his government that U.S. and Iraqi military officials say is being used as a smokescreen to hide an extreme Shiite agenda that is worsening the country's sectarian divide.

The "Office of the Commander in Chief" has the power to overrule other government ministries, according to U.S. military and intelligence sources.

Those sources say the 24-member office is abusing its power, increasingly overriding decisions made by the Iraqi Ministries of Defense and Interior and potentially undermining the entire U.S. effort in Iraq.

The Office, as it is known in Baghdad, was set up about four months ago with the knowledge of American forces in Iraq. Its goal is ostensibly to advise Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki -- the nation's new commander in chief -- on military matters.

As I've been saying for a long time, we are not establishing freedom and democracy in Iraq but are establishing another generation of Saddams (this time Shia), or even worse (with a Islamic fundamentalist twist).