That Alleged Baathist Coup, Ctd.

Judah Grunstein sizes up the news from Baghdad:

Whoever's version you believe about the wave of arrests of government officials in Baghdad, the news is troubling, if not surprising. Either we're propping up an Iraqi government that faces even more security threats than we realized, or else one that is guilty of ruthless tactics of political suppression. My first reaction to the news that these guys were plotting a coup was that it takes a serious pair to seize power by force in a country where 130,000 American troops are deployed in defense of the currently constituted government. Either that or a nod of approval from the Green Zone, which seems on the face of it absurd.