I was thinking about the issue of the Iraq parliament taking August off, and the stock response from Tony Snow and others that it’s awfully hot in Iraq in August. Yes, it’s true that it is very hot, even if, as I imagine, it’s a dry heat. It’s also true that this pat answer is shameful on its face because the troops stationed there don’t get to take the month off. What has struck me, however, is that this seems to be as far as almost all the criticism of the idea goes. There are two other criticisms that should be made of the idea, but seem absent.
The first is purely practical. With temperatures reaching 130F in Baghdad, you might think that lawmakers would be glad to hang out in a lovely air conditioned building during the day. That they do not suggests to me that 1) power isn’t reliable enough to count on the air conditioning (that’s certainly true for most of Baghdad, but I don’t know what special provision there is for the parliament), or 2) they don’t see the point of being there. Which leads us on to…
The second issue is more substantive. Despite recent reporting, there is no majority coalition government in Iraq, and no clear path to getting one. Faced with the challenges of uniting Iraq, or even orchestrating a graceful split, the government can’t even place its hand on its heart and say it will have the same leader in a month’s time. As sure as there is much to be done in the country, there are few with the ability and drive to get it done. Staring at that, I’d take August off too.