Our Friends in Iraq

Via Atrios, this story in the NY Times:

BAGHDAD, Monday, March 5 — Iraqi special forces and British troops stormed the offices of an Iraqi government intelligence agency in the southern city of Basra on Sunday, and British officials said they discovered about 30 prisoners, some showing signs of torture

Three dots

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a conservative Shiite, condemned the raid in Basra, but he publicly said nothing about the evidence of torture.

“The prime minister has ordered an immediate investigation into the incident of breaking into the security compound in Basra and stressed the need to punish those who have carried out this illegal and irresponsible act,” said the full text of a statement issued late Sunday by his office.

Some comments:
1. These are our allies. Sure, they don’t seem to achieve the level of butchery of some of our Afghan friends, but these are our friends in Iraq. Congratulations, your tax dollars pay for this.
2. Our puppet (let’s call it like it is) in Iraq seems to get upset about only a few things. These are searching for missing American personnel, cracking down on al Sadr, and doing something about torture.
3. As the British leave southern Iraq, what happens to the incentive of, um, Iraqi intelligence to engage in torture?
4. So what was the point of unloading Saddam again? WMDs? There were none. Threatening the US? How? Oil? Well, the Michael Ledeens would insist we would never be so vulgar. Oh yeah, Saddam was an evil man. And the administration replaced that evil man with?