In late February, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani was flown to neighbouring Jordan for medical treatment amid conflicting reports about his health. Sources in Amman and from Talabani's office in Baghdad told reporters that the 73-year-old had suffered a stroke, but in a televised interview his son said that Talabani was suffering from fatigue or exhaustion.

Meanwhile, Shi'ite leader Abdul Azizi al-Hakim, leader of Iraq's largest Shia party, recently arrived in Iran for treatment for lung cancer after being diagnosed at a hospital in the southern U.S. state of Texas.

This development, in particular, is expected to create chaos within the Supreme Islamic Council in Iraq, the political organisation the George W. Bush administration has counted on to push through legislation, particularly regarding the new Iraqi oil law.

The ailments of their leaders are not just perceived as physical by many Iraqis.

"It is a sick government right from the start and these people's absence shows the huge size of the chaos in Iraq," Waleed Zaidi, a political analyst in Baghdad told IPS. "The truth about rumours does not count as much as the solid fact that all those who are supposed to lead the country to stability are abroad for different reasons. A close look at the Iraqi scene shows that no one is really working to improve the situation."

The Iraqi Parliament has not been functioning as it should either. In fact, the chaos in its meeting hall reflects the huge divisions amongst interest groups outside.

"To say the truth for history, one must admit that we are not doing much for those who voted for us hoping we would improve their living conditions," a member of the Iraqi Parliament, who requested anonymity, told IPS. "We have our justifications for not being able to serve. Starting from the difficulty in reaching the parliament building to the daily threats to our lives inside and outside the so-called Green Zone."

Over the past year, an increasing number of Iraqis have begun to see the Iraqi government as no more than pawns of the United States.

"The U.S. administration was furious when the Iraqi Parliament decided to declare a two-month summer vacation," 34-year-old lawyer Alaa Abdul-Rahman from Baghdad told IPS. "It is not decided yet whether the administration's request to parliament to give up the vacation in order to pass "essential legislations" would be accepted or not, but we know they will eventually listen to their American masters."

Iraqis have turned the crisis in the government into harsh jokes about their leaders, but when interviewed, no one tried to hide their frustration.

"We took serious chances to go and vote for them hoping things would improve, but our situation is getting worse and worse," said 65-year-old taxi driver Mansoor Malalla from Shula, north of Baghdad. "All they did was collecting as much dollars as they could lay their hands on, leaving us as easy targets for hit squads and street bombs."

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