I Wouldn't Want To Be In Al-Maliki's Skin If Hillary's Elected

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki doesn't seem to think very far ahead. This has been a problem with the government he's headed since Day One, with his obvious inability to unite any of the factions there. But now he's showing a talent for shitting where he lives -- and that is under very heavy U.S. protection that may not last that much longer.

Granted, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin both said last week that al-Maliki should be replaced as Iraqi head of state, simply because he's been ineffective. Al-Maliki had a few days to think this over, but responded by verbally counterattacking. According to The Associated Press, he said the aforementioned critics should "come to their senses" and stop treating Iraq "like one of their villages."

A head of state who's been treading on ice as thin as al-Maliki has should perhaps have considered that, come January 2009, there's a fair chance that it will no longer be George W. Bush, but Hillary Clinton, that he will be dealing with as leader of a "sponsoring" superpower. That is, if he's still around then.

I can certainly understand the resentment behind his statement: The U.S. has, unfortunately, been dealing with most of the Third World like that for 60 years, and even longer off and on. But what Iraq needs right now is a world-class diplomat at the helm. They most decidedly do not have that.

The bottom line is that the entire U.S. policy in Iraq is manifestly a failure, so one way or another, al-Maliki's government will be sacrificed on the altar of geopolitics. Even the shills in the Mainstream Media are compelled to moments of truthfulness. This from AP:

Al-Maliki launched his verbal counteroffensive about two weeks before the American commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker are due in Washington to report to Congress on progress in Iraq since the introduction of 30,000 more American troops.

The presence of those reinforcements has done little to bring about political reconciliation among Iraq's Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds - the key to lasting stability.

In the latest in a series of political crisis meetings, Iraq's top leaders failed again Sunday to convince the main Sunni bloc to join a new alliance of Shiites and Kurds to break the political impasse.

He may not last 17 more months, even under the pathologically stubborn sponsorship of Bush & Co. But if he's still around in January 2009, and Hillary wins ...