Sadr City Raid

U.S. and Iraqi special forces raided Sadr City today, with the U.S. military stating that its goal was the capture of a "top illegal armed group commander directing widespread death squad activity throughout eastern Baghdad." That sounds like a very specific goal, one you wouldn't like to announce before successfully capturing the target.

Apparently uninformed of the raid, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki angrily stated that such a raid "would not be repeated," thus clearing up any doubt over whether his government would merely limit militia activity or work to root out the militias themselves -- the question of the week. Maliki has clearly placed himself on the side of the militias' continued existence.

If there was ever any question of whether Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki and Washington were in sync, that question has been answered today. Maliki is against attacks on the Mahdi Army by the U.S., making it clear that he would never attack such a major Shiite militia himself.

And just after the Iraqis apparently said they would accept an American set of benchmarks and timetables for security, Maliki stated in a news conference that "this government represents the will of the people and no one has the right to impose a timetable on it."

President Bush, in his own news conference today, expressed his dissatisfaction with the situation in Iraq, stating that America's patience is "not unlimited" but that "we will not put more pressure on the Iraqi government than it can bear."

President Bush reassured Prime Minister Maliki last week that he still had confidence in Maliki and wouldn't push him out of office. But don't forget that not long after President Bush told FEMA Director Michael Brown that he had done a "heckuva job," Brownie was cut loose to start consulting on emergency management.

Now, President Bush can't just depose the man he crowned the elected leader of Iraq after pushing out Ibrahim Jaafari. But if he thinks Maliki won't do anything, President Bush will ignore Maliki and will work for American goals directly, without bothering with niceties like informing the elected government.

It looks like today we have just seen President Bush's vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Maliki as well as Maliki's countergambit -- a refusal to cooperate with American security benchmark pressure. In either case, it reflects a meltdown of U.S. - Iraqi political relations.