NO DEUS EX MACHINA IN THIS TRAGEDY. In connection with Sam's post, check out a piece in today's WaPo by Thomas Ricks on a new report on Iraq from Barry McCaffrey. Even more worth a read is McCaffrey's report itself -- there's a link to the pdf here.
There's much of value in the brief report, but he touches on a point related to the one from Brownstein that Sam discusses: "The democratic [sicj] control of Congress and its vocal opposition can actually provide a helpful framework within which our brilliant new Ambassador Ryan Crocker can maneuver the Maliki administration to understand their diminishing options." That is, the Bush administration can in effect tell Maliki, "We're holding off the opposition and the American public for now, but it won't last, especially if you don't do what we say and show real results. We might have to pull up the Green Zone." Such leverage may be helpful for accomplishing some of the objectives, like a modified form of de-Baathification and an oil-sharing law, that are supposed to be the mechanisms of national reconciliation. Whether they will be or not, even if achieved, is another question.
