who needs enemas?

Nice Tim. 3,721 = no standing to complain. What about close to a million dead, an army occupying your land, all hallmarks of civilization now smashed, and none of it by your own choosing?

I guess Tim Grieve's version of democracy is that you let your invading army tell you how to operate your government because you owe them so much.

I always thought that the U.S. - Iraqi goverment marriage was a bad idea, and now it looks like the couple will be splitting up after only a few years. Shame.

Gonna be a messy divorce, that's for sure.

The 3,721 U.S dead = no standing to complain is the Bush administration reasoning. I don't think Mr. Grieve concurs. But, I could be wrong. It has happened before.

Now, why did I drink coffee this morning? I know I am allergic.

Iraq never asked us to invade, overthrow Saddam and leave the country in a state of ungovernable chaos. We've really got no standing to complain how they manage things, after telling them that we wanted them to govern themselves. Now that Bush has none-too-subtly hinted that he wants the Iraqis to get rid of Maliki, you can't complain about a little truculence on his part.

He's right that they can find other friends. We should have seen that coming a mile off when we decided to put Saddam out of business and empower the Shi'ites. The one Iraqi who WAS encouraging us to invade, Ahmed Chalabi, turns out to have been working hand in glove with Iran all along. And now Maliki's government wants to cozy up to Iran and Syria, quel surprise! So Bush, like the Sorcerer's Apprentice, frantically trying to undo the mess he's made, is trying to set things right by threatening Iran and trying to portray Iran and Syria as the enemies of the new Iraq government, when of course they're OUR enemy and Iraq's good buddies. As you might recall, trying to chop the magic broom in half didn't work too well for the Sorcerer's Apprentice, either. It only created lots more little brooms carrying water to the trough and increasing the flood.

Most people know the musical setting of the Sorcerer's Apprentice, not to mention Mickey Mouse's version, but the original is worth getting to know. Here's a link. Tell me if you can read this without thinking of Bush -- except that the poor apprentice has the decency to accept assistance from the master after he realizes he's in over his head.

http://www.fln.vcu.edu/goethe/zauber_e3.html

Let's be real, OK?

The entire so-called Iraqi Government is a sham. It's bullshit from the word go. It exists at the discretion of the White House. The whole damned government, from Maliki on down, could be dispatched in several hours.

So this whole Punch 'n Judy Show between Maliki and Bush is fake. Maliki is playing his role as the deeply offended "president" of Iraq who is feeling so disappointed that Bush is losing confidence in him (wink wink, and a couple tears for the cameras).

The perception that Bush is turning against Maliki actually enhances Maliki's standing among the people of Iraq, who for the most part want us the hell out of there.

But let's say for argument's sake that Maliki actually walked the walk against Bush. How many hours do you suppose that he would have left on this earth? My bet is he'd be blown to hell in a roadside bomb attack (Blamed on Al Qaeda of course) and he would be replaced with another puppet for the next Punch 'N Judy show within a few days.

Anybody else want to go against the White House? Step right up.

He's got a point. You really have to get down in the muck and wallow in Arab level mayhem and atrocities before you can really have a complaint.

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.

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.

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.