National Review chimes in on devastating impact of Maliki's comments about withdrawal

[8ballrollin]

Originally Posted by Tex

Maliki is a shrewd politician, even for an Iraqi. He's obviously playing American politics to get what he wants from the Bush administration. Cheers to him for a well-played hand.

My favorite quote on Maliki, from the NYT's excellent Iraq correspondent John Burns...

The choices of political leaders were pretty dismal. Nuri Kamal al-Maliki was a kind of default choice. … Maliki is a man who -- not to be unkind -- I think if you were sitting on a local school board, you'd worry about appointing him to be principal of your local high school, and here's a guy who's been put in charge of a nation of 30 million people.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl...ews/burns.html