A New Plan From Iraq

Since the Sunni are being a major pain in Maliki's ass, he now wants to cut the size of his cabinet. Would anyone like to bet which ministers were on the chopping block?

Maliki has said for months he wanted a reshuffle to cull inefficient ministers and bring in more technocrats. On Tuesday, he acknowledged the government's performance had been poor.

"It has been agreed to have a total Cabinet reshuffle by reducing the number of ministries from 36, to 20 or 22 ministries," Sami al-Askari, a Shiite member of Parliament and senior Maliki adviser, said on state Iraqiyya television.

"The prime minister must have the complete right to select his ministries. At that point, the prime minister can be held accountable for his choices," Maliki said.

Cabinet posts reflect a quota system largely based on seats held in Parliament by the Shiite majority, minority Sunni Arabs and Kurds. This has made many ministers more loyal to their political and sectarian blocs than Maliki.

Maliki is desparate to find a way to make his US handlers happy. This move will be to try and find a way to give the US at least oine of the "benchmarks" that they wat. The passage of the oil law.

CHUQ