Don't Let Your Pet Look Like A Pet In Public.

"The worry is that the more Maliki is seen as our puppet, because he is abiding by our timelines and deadlines, the internal political dynamics will become so fragile that the whole government would collapse," said one senior official participating in the internal review. "That would set us back a year."


How is it possible that the White House and the State Department can issue statements about their strategy to prevent Nouri Al-Maliki from being viewed as a U.S. stooge? Wouldn't that, by definition, imply that he's their boy? That he's owned from the balls up?

Is it not clear that this administration's goal is now to saddle the next administration with a morass? It seems (from my perspective, anyway) likely that a Democrat will win the next election. Would it serve Republicans to allow a Democrat to figure out the actual "exit strategy" for the U.S. from Iraq? It seems likely, doesn't it?