Bush's attempts to coach the Iraqi PM

11:21am

This account of how George W. Bush has tried to mentor Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, is fascinating. Bush sees his role as giving Maliki the confidence to lead. He tries to gee the Iraqi PM up by both giving him support and through some frat-boy ribbing. The whole approach is summed up by this exchange between the two just before Bush announced his new Iraq strategy: 

Then, challenging Maliki, the president said, "It's looking like al-Sadr's gonna run your country."

Maliki grew solemn. "I swear to God," he vowed, "al-Sadr will not run this country." Bush took that in. "Well," he said, "I'll put my neck out if you put your neck out."

The reassuring news in the piece is that Bush understands Maliki’s limitations, even encouraging other US politicians to put pressure on him while he offers Maliki unstinting support. Much in Iraq depends on Maliki, if he can not move beyond being a sectarian politician the window of opportunity that the surge has created through additional security—sectarian killings in Baghdad have been cut in half since it began—will be lost.