Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the internal political pressures on Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that may prevent him from inviting the US military to stay past 2011; how Obama has joined the Pentagon’s attempt to subvert the Status of Forces Agreement; how Moqtada al-Sadr’s influence may tie Maliki’s hands – whereby acquiescing to US wishes could very well cost him his job; the popular Iraqi outrage about Saudi Arabia’s brutal repression of Bahrain’s Shia majority and its longstanding financial support of militant Iraqi Sunni groups; the possibility of a regional conflagration along religious lines, pitting Iran against Saudi Arabia; and why Iraq’s military – which has close ties with the US military – wants the troop extension and might attempt a coup to make it happen.
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