AmericasBlood.com

“I appreciate the prime minister’s views that the Iraqis are plenty capable of running their own business, and they don’t need foreign interference from neighbors that will be destabilizing the country,” (Bush in reference to Iraqi prime Minister Al-Maliki).

Remove the “from neighbors” part and Bush almost sounds like he says we should not interfere with a free country, namely Iraq….. He really should listen to his advice.

The full text of the CNN article is after the “Read More” link but let me go ahead and give you a quick summary of how I read this…

Al Maliki will not move against Al-Sadr, for the moment he needs a thug in the background that can act and take the heat. Al Maliki will politely ask us to 1.) get the hell out of his country, and 2.) give him all the weapons he can warehouse. Al Maliki does NOT want to talk with Jordan because that country is mostly Sunni in composition. Al Maliki DOES want to talk to Syria and Iran because they are Shiite. In 5 years or less, there will be no Sunnis left in Iraq. within 10 years, Iraq will be so closely tied with either Iran or Syria, and possibly BOTH, that we will be talking about invading the region as a means of protecting Israel. If we do NOT make the move quick enough, either Tehran, Damascus or Baghdad will see a Nuke explode courtest of Israel.

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — President Bush on Thursday expressed support for Iraq’s prime minister and said the United States will speed a turnover of security responsibility to Iraqi forces.

Bush also insisted the U.S. will stay “until the job is complete.”

Thursday’s meetings were supposed to be Bush’s second set of strategy sessions in the Jordanian capital. But the first meeting between Bush and Nuri al-Maliki, scheduled for Wednesday night along with Jordan’s king, was scrubbed.

Accounts varied as to why, but it followed the leak of a classified White House memo critical of al-Maliki and a boycott of the Iraqi leader’s government in Baghdad. Thirty Iraqi lawmakers and five cabinet ministers loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said they were suspending participation in Parliament and the government to protest al-Maliki’s decision to meet with Bush. (Watch details of Hadley’s memo)

“He’s the right guy for Iraq,” Bush said of al-Maliki after the two met Thursday.

“There is no problem,” declared al-Maliki.

Bush assured al-Maliki that Washington is not looking for a “graceful exit” from a war well into its fourth violent year.

Under intensifying political pressure at home, the American and Iraqi leaders came together for a hastily arranged summit to explore how to stop escalating violence that is tearing Iraq apart and eroding support for Bush’s war strategy. (Watch Bush and al-Maliki discuss what it takes to succeed in Iraq)

With Bush hoping to strengthen his Iraqi counterpart’s fragile government, the tensions that flared when their opening session was abruptly cancelled Wednesday evening were not apparent when they appeared before reporters after breakfast Thursday.

“I appreciate the courage you show during these difficult times as you lead your country,” Bush told al-Maliki after nearly two and a half hours of talks. It was their third face-to-face meeting since al-Maliki took power about six months ago.

There were no immediate answers for mending the Shiite-Sunni divide that is fueling sectarian bloodshed in Iraq or taming the stubborn insurgency against the U.S. presence. The leaders emerged from their breakfast and formal session with few specific ideas, particularly on Bush’s repeated pledge to move more quickly to transfer authority for Iraq’s security to al-Maliki’s government.

“One of his frustrations with me is that he believes that we’ve been slow about giving him the tools necessary to protect the Iraqi people,” Bush said. “He doesn’t have the capacity to respond. So we want to accelerate that capacity.”

There was no explanation from either side of how that would happen, beyond support for the long-standing goals of speeding the U.S. military’s effort to train Iraqi security forces and to give more military authority over Iraq to al-Maliki.

A senior al-Maliki aide who attended Thursday’s talks said the Iraqi leader presented Bush a blueprint for the equipping and training of Iraqi security forces. The aide, who spoke anonymously because of the sensitive nature of the information, declined to give details.

The November elections that handed control of Congress to Democrats have given rise to heightened calls for the about 140,000 American soldiers in Iraq to begin coming home.

Bush acknowledged that pressure and said he wanted to start troop withdrawals as soon as possible.

“I know there’s a lot of speculation that these reports in Washington mean there’s going to be some kind of graceful exit out of Iraq,” he said. “This business about a graceful exit just simply has no realism to it at all.”

The president added: “I’m a realist because I understand how tough it is inside of Iraq.”

Bush said al-Maliki “discussed with me his political situation,” but he declined to step publicly into delicate internal Iraqi matters.

Privately, Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice repeatedly pressed the Iraqi prime minister to disband a heavily armed Shiite militia loyal to al-Sadr, according to the senior al-Maliki aide. It is blamed for much of the country’s sectarian violence

The official quoted al-Maliki as telling Bush that controlling the group “is not a big problem and we will find a solution for it.” Al-Sadr is a key al-Maliki political backer and the prime minister has regularly sidestepped U.S. demands to deal with the Mehdi Army.

Before the cameras, Al-Maliki sent the protesting forces at home a message.

“Those who participate in this government need to bear responsibilities, and foremost upon those responsibilities is the protection of this government, the protection of the constitution, the protection of the law, not breaking the law,” he said.

Al-Maliki’s insistence on not attending the three-way meeting with Bush and Jordan’s king was a troubling sign of possible U.S. difficulties ahead in the effort to calm Iraq.

The Bush administration is believed to be pushing its Sunni allies in the region to persuade Sunni insurgent sympathizers in Iraq to reconcile with the Shiite factions that are close to the Iraqi leader.

Bush, meanwhile, continued to reject drawing Shiite-led Iran into helping Iraq in its struggle for peace.

“I appreciate the prime minister’s views that the Iraqis are plenty capable of running their own business, and they don’t need foreign interference from neighbors that will be destabilizing the country,” he said.

Al-Maliki, though, seemed open to the possibility of Tehran, as well as Damascus, getting involved.

A bipartisan commission on Iraq that will unveil recommendations next week is expected to urge direct diplomacy with Iran and Syria, America’s chief rivals in the Middle East. (Watch what’s known — and not known — about the Iraq Study Group’s report)

“We are ready to cooperate with everybody who believe that they need to communicate with the national unity government, especially our neighbors,” al-Maliki said. “Our doors are open.”

The two agreed that Iraq should not be partitioned along sectarian lines into semi-regions for the Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites, Bush said.

“The prime minister made clear that splitting his country into parts, as some have suggested, is not what the Iraqi people want, and that any partition of Iraq would only lead to an increase in sectarian violence,” the president said. “I agree.”