I've had a bit of a cable news vacation so I don't know what's going on there, but it's certainly the case that the Maliki/Obama story is being underplayed in print world.
All of this is ultimately due to the fact that the reason we're in Iraq, mostly, is to prop up the egos of George Bush and Fred Hiatt. Because they've defined leaving as failure, and therefore the mission is simply "to say," it's unpossible to insert into the narrative the idea that maybe Iraqis want us to leave no matter how true that is.
Every time I get near the "why did we invade Iraq and why do we stay" question, people always email me the word "oil." I don't deny the importance of oil in all of this, but 5 years later there's really a simpler explanation. Washington elites are simple-minded people with the emotional maturity of toddlers, and they are unable to accept their responsibility for this disaster. And so we stay.
SUCK ON THIS FRED HIATT
