MAILKI AND PETRAEUS AT EACH OTHER'S THROATS-- WHILE SAUDIS CLAIM MALIKI IS AN IRANIAN AGENT

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The Elders of Republicanism have given up on 2008 and are trying to set up GOP hack David Betraeus as the reactionary opponent to President Hillary in 2012. Bush's puppet Iraqi Prime Minister was slapped down when he demanded that Petraeus and his thoroughly discredited strategy of arming Sunnis to fight al Qaeda-- isn't that how we got al Qaeda to begin with: arming Afghan Sunnis in that country's civil war?-- be shipped back to America. Prime Minister al-Maliki told Bush to remove Petraeus.

One Iraqi source said Mr Maliki used a video conference with Mr Bush to call for the general's signature strategy to be scrapped. "He told Bush that if Petraeus continues, he would arm Shia militias," said the official. "Bush told Maliki to calm down."

At another meeting with Gen Petraeus, Mr Maliki said: "I can't deal with you any more. I will ask for someone else to replace you."

Maliki will soon be dependent on a Petraeus-controlled evacuation helicopter to take him off the roof of the U.S. Embassy and fly him to safety, so maybe he better stop trying to interfere with Republican Party electoral strategy. Or maybe he's already decided that safety for him and his family will be through Tehran, not as a refugee in the U.S.

The New York Times claimed yesterday that Saudi Arabia was refusing to work with Mr Maliki and has presented "evidence" that he was an Iranian intelligence agent to US officials. "Bush administration officials are voicing increasing anger at what they say has been Saudi Arabia's counterproductive role in the war," it reported.