If I was Nuri al-Maliki I'd be contemplating a nice place to exile myself:
Details of a leaked memo which raises doubts about PM Nouri Maliki's ability to control sectarian violence in Iraq have been published in the US...
...the reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into actions."
White House spokesman Tony Snow, who is travelling with Mr Bush, said the chief aim of the memo was "to support Maliki and enhance his capabilities".
Among the suggestions in the memo is that Mr Maliki distance himself from the anti-US Shia leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, and that Washington should help him put together a new, more moderate, less sectarian political alliance.
But given Mr Maliki's political background as a Shia Islamist, he looks unlikely to do either of these things, says the BBC's Middle East analyst Roger Hardy.
Maybe al-Sadr got a copy of the memo, and decided to proactively add a bit of distance himself, with the added bonus of making it clear who's puppet...and who's puppeteer:
Lawmakers and Cabinet ministers loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have suspended participation in parliament and the government to protest Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's meeting today with President Bush.
And...speaking of puppets:
President Bush's high-stakes summit with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was put off Wednesday amid political unrest in Baghdad and public disclosure of U.S. doubts about the Iraqi leader's capacity to control sectarian warfare.
All the elections--and purple ink-stained fingers--in the world won't keep the Shrub policy stinkbomb that is Iraq from, well, stinking to high heaven.
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