Iraq acting Sovereign, Bush to Blame

This story in the LA times today was interesting.
Maliki wants a) more control over his forces, b) faster training of his people, c) bigger and better weapons d) talks with Syria and Iran.

Maliki's emboldened stand comes at a time of uncertainty for U.S. strategy in Iraq.

While the process may be accelerated due to Democrats in office and Bush leaving in 2 years, this sounds like the exact US strategy that we've been working on. Get the Iraqi's to take care of themselves. Isn't it?

This cracked me up:

"If the Americans withdraw, the fighting will stop," Iraq's most revered Sunni cleric, Harith Dhari, said in Jordan, where he met with Abdullah in the run-up to the summit. "Once Americans make the decision to withdraw, whether it is in one or two years, we can go to the resistance and tell them you have what you have been fighting for."

If you can go to the resistance and tell them the Americans will leave in 2 years and you have what you want, then why can't you go to the resistance and tell them that the Americans will leave as soon as the resistance stops killing their own people? Pulease.

In other news, the famous NYTimes has leaked MORE classified information. Though I have to say with all the leaking going on, I'm personally going to start calling it "President Bush's special way of getting out the news without actually having to talk with reporters."

The memo presents an unvarnished portrait of Mr. Maliki and notes that he relies for some of his political support on leaders of more extreme Shiite groups. The five-page document, classified secret, is based in part on a one-on-one meeting between Mr. Hadley and Mr. Maliki on Oct. 30.

Yes, this was leaked from Senior Administration official and the Times just went right ahead and put it in their paper. And the secret part? The administration wonders if Maliki is up to the task ahead. LOL.

If I were President Bush, I would want that information on the table and out in the open before going into a meeting with President Maliki. It looks to me like Bush knows exactly where to accidently leave his memos in order to get them printed in the NYTimes.

And one more. Iraq the Model has a short post of the rumors in Baghdad about this meeting today.