The Maliki counteroffensive

AP/NY Times:

Iraq's beleaguered prime minister on Sunday lashed out at American critics who have called for his ouster, saying Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Carl Levin need to ''come to their senses.''

Nouri al-Maliki, who is fighting to hold his government together, issued a series of stinging ripostes against a variety of foreign officials who recently have spoken negatively about his leadership. But those directed at Democrats Clinton, of New York, and Levin, of Michigan, were most strident.

''There are American officials who consider Iraq as if it were one of their villages, for example Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin. They should come to their senses,'' al-Maliki said at a news conference.

Al-Maliki launched the verbal counteroffensive in the final days 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 America troops.

The Shiite prime minister said a negative report by Petraeus would not cause him to change course, although he said he expected that the U.S. general would ''be supportive of the government and will disappoint the politicians who are relying on it'' to be negative.

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Democrats want to treat the Iraqi government like a puppet. It is part of their control freak mentality. It also undermines democracy in Iraq. Maliki may very well be removed by Iraqis, but he is struggling with some structural difficulties in the Iraqi government that are beyond his ability to control and the politicians in Washington should at least comprehend that reality before they try to kick him under the bus. Senators in particular should understand the difficulty in trying to legislate where a super majority is required. Not even the media seems to remember this requirement of the Iraqi constitution that was put in to keep the majority Shia from running roughshod over the Kurds and the Sunni. The result has been to permit the Kurds and the Sunni to use a passive aggressive strategy to thwart most of Maliki's agenda.

Austin Bay gives his take on the Clinton-Levin appeal to their base. Captain Ed also notices the neo colonial tone of the Democrats.