does your keyboard have hiccups or does "wrt" mean something?

"You're doing a heckuva job, Brownie!"

Shortly after, Brown is done.

"You're doing a heckuva job, Maliki."

The writing's on the wall.

Either Bush is a lying fuckface or he can't assess talent, a trait required by someone in his profession. The lying, that is.

Is this post supposed to criticize Maliki? 3,721 US dead?! How many Iraqis have died? 100,000? More? Let's be fair, here. The idea that the Iraqi president should be more concerned with an invading/occupying army's troops than his own citizens is laughable.

We took you in

We can take you out

When a reporter asked Laura Bush recently about her husband's abysmal approval ratings, she said she didn't believe the polls.

Where was the reporter's follow up: You do realize, Mrs. Bush, that only people who agree with your husband are allowed to come within 1000 yards of him?

$10 Billion dollars a month= standing to complain

until Ann Coulter, or some other right wing "pundit" suggests that we just "nuke" Iraq already and get the whole thing over with.

For what it's worth, I think Tim's headline was a paraphrase of Malaki's point (rather than his own opinion, necessarily), which is that the Bush administration has no right to complain, given that they're responsible for this whole mess, and our count of dead and wounded comes nowhere near their count of dead and wounded. Not to mention the exodus of people who've already left Iraq, and the destruction of property, etc.

right after he's done as vice-president. Not a second sooner. Our problem is going to be dislodging Cheney...

I understand our unified frustration over Bushpolicy. However, let's not give Maliki a pass. Without US presence, he will be free to ethnically cleanse Sunni sect and establish a more firmer control for the Shias. They can find friends elsewhere for sure.... that will be Iran. Other neighbors will remain very hostile for decades to come. They cannot find boots on the ground that protects minority interest for sure. Our soldiers are so far the only barrier between an all out Shia majority and Kurds demanding autonomy to isolate them from the rest of the mess. Already Sunni exodus is apparently 70% of the refugees. Even Saudi's are not really helping their own clan except standing up militias i.e. in a counter-productive way. Maliki is a self serving leader with no real power; so, let’s not give him any great compliment as yet. The plight of common Iraqi's was never their own choosing; however, their interest is now not served by Maliki or Bush; it is only our soldiers with limited help from Iraqi people keeping the endless fighting at a lower lever compared to something all out madness. It is not sustainable but such is the case sometime when you make some irreversible mistake in foreign policy.

Let’s keep this in perspective. You need to remember that this is “hard work” unless you’re a dictator.

“….there are going to be some times where we don't agree with each other, but that's OK. If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator" – GWB in CNN interview 12/18/2000

So let’s examine this:

A) Never mind that U.S. troops (and many of your country’s citizens) are dying.

B) Never mind that your government is dysfunctional, politically motivated and moving too slowly in finding a resolution.

C) Never mind your critics.

D) Be assured that all this buys time for your personal agenda and “legacy”.

Sound familiar? Not bad….

He still has to learn that “the people and his constitution” actually don’t matter. That’s a nuance that takes patience with those who “don’t do nuance”. After all, he doesn’t have the Shooter as his mentor. But you have to admire his Churchillian statement “we will pay no attention”; although he left out the “wife and his dog Barney” part. Maybe his wife and dog have been killed in the conflict. On the plus side for him, unlike his teacher, I’m sure he CAN “find friends elsewhere”.

On balance, I have to say, by GEORGE, I think he’s got it!

Someone (a TV opinionator)who seemed to make a lot of sense said yesterday that what Maliki NEEDS is for the USA to attack, trash, abandon him, since it would strengthen his position. I guess W isn't the only sociopathic head of state who really wants to bring on the apocalypse.

How many ‘governments’ did we go through in South Vietnam before the end? And what did we end up with? A corrupt system that could only survive with massive US military and economic aid.

Now Bush and Levin (D) are calling for the same thing in Iraq. If we don’t like the government, replace it with one we do like and to hell with even the phony elections that we ran. We all remember how Maliki came to power right? We didn’t like the previous President so we pressured the Iraqi government to replace him. We don’t like Maliki now so he’s got to go.

We never learn.

of course if "the government" asks us to leave, we will get out "our" dictionary to define or redefine who or what "the goverment" is ....

if Maliki "falls" that still leaves Iraq in a state of chaos with an healthy Shiia majority which grows overwhelming wrt the beleagered Sunnis if you subtract the Kurds (since they are pretty much confined geographically and figure marginally if at all in "sectarian violence" elsewhere.)

As a parliamentary "crisis" a vote of confidence is within "business as usual" and would require a "tipping point" to do more than impede any progress for 6-8 months until a new coalition government is settled upon.

It's not surprising that the Shiia are chaotic and divided -- they've not held drive-the-car power in Iraq in, irrc, over a thousand years, maybe two ... they have a few rich ex-pats, but mostly they have clan and religious affliations. The Sunni were the managerial class. It's not surprising they are "better organized" and better educated, etc. Irrc, Fallujah is a Sunni City. It's not surprising, even predictable, that finding the Shiia "peasants" difficult to corral we have been turning to a "neo-colonial" solution -- attempting to reinstate Sunni/Baaths. This pleases the Saudis as well ...

I have to admire Maliki in an odd way ... I cannot imagine the "fortutide" his job requires. Like Karzai, it's amazing he's still alive and kicking.