The Daily Beast quotes Rafik Hariri Center Nonresident Fellow Ramzy Mardini on the ongoing crisis in Iraq:
“This crisis was very predictable. In some ways, Washington is to blame by rushing the process and thinking that the faster democratic processes happen, the more stable the outcome,” said Ramzy Mardini, a fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former State Department official. “These things are delicate. If you put too much strain and pressure on fragile political systems, they’re going to explode in your face.”
[…]
U.S. officials said Sunday night there was still time for a new prime minister candidate to emerge; after all, Iraqi political deadlines have proven to be debatable and fungible. But the pressure from Washington to get a government together fast didn’t allow for negotiations that would have produced a government that was sustainable and that had a chance to convince Maliki to leave on his own accord, Mardini said. (Putting the last Iraqi government together required almost 10 months’ worth of negotiations in 2010.)