Bush Takes a Step Away From Maliki

Source: nytimes



August 22, 2007

Bush Takes a Step Away From Maliki

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and JIM RUTENBERG

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 — When President Bush and Nuri Kamal al-Maliki stood side by side in Jordan last November, the president proclaimed the prime minister “the right guy for Iraq.”

By Tuesday, that phrase had all but evaporated from Mr. Bush’s lexicon.

Instead, Mr. Bush acknowledged “a certain level of frustration” with the Iraqi government’s failure to unify its warring ethnic factions. His comments at a meeting of North American leaders in Canada came just hours after the top American diplomat in Baghdad, Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, called political progress in Iraq “extremely disappointing” and warned that United States support for the Maliki government did not come with a “blank check.”

It was not quite the vote of no confidence delivered by Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the Democratic chairman of the Armed Services Committee, who on Monday said Mr. Maliki should quit. But it was a striking attempt by the White House to distance itself from the Maliki government before September, when the president’s troop buildup faces an intense review on Capitol Hill.

That timing is no coincidence. Mr. Bush is already facing skepticism within his own party over the troop buildup, and will almost certainly confront repeated attempts by Democrats to force an end to the war. So he seems to be laying the groundwork for a new message, one that says, “We’re doing our job in Iraq; don’t blame us if the Iraqis aren’t doing theirs.”........

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/22/world/middleeast/22prexy.html?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print

then ask for more time to fight this so-called war (occupation) to give the new guy a chance. What Levin did is give * an excuse to extend this conflict and push it out even further.

consider that person the US's lackey and anything their PM puts into operation is with orders from the US.

Well, that's optimistic. I really hope we do see more of these attempts by Dem leadership and Americans everywhere.

As for Bush, no surprise...everything in this WH's playbook is dishonest and dangerous.

Yep...
Just ask the Uniter here in the good ol USA...
You gotta get the people TOGETHER!

Pugnuts loooove a scapegoat. I never hear them blame the dawdling Iraqi Parliament. I guess that would suggest the problem goes beyond the (easily disposable) lion tamer.

Get the U.S. out of Iraq and let them have at it... I think they will probably be able to figure themselves out without our so called help.

So maybe we can just call the whole war off and go home now!