Jason Zengerle is confusing me. "There's no denying that liberals who once derided Maliki as a Bush administration stooge are now touting him as the authentic and sovereign voice of the Iraqi people," writes Zengerle. "But conservatives are doing their own flip-flop as well." It's possible that I had an opinion on Maliki's stoogedom in recent months, though I can't recall one. When a single politician requires American support, Iranian support, Islamist support, and sectarian support to stay in power, trying to unravel who's pulling which string is a fool's endeavor. But the importance of Maliki's remarks has little to do with their grassroots legitimacy. Rather, we know, from polling, that the majority of the Iraqi people want us out. In March, ABC polled the Iraqi people, asking "do you think the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq is making security in our country better, worse, or having no effect on the security situation? 61 percent said worse. Another 73 percent said "they oppose" the presence of coalition forces in Iraq. Additionally, we now know that the closest thing Iraq has to a sovereign government think it's in their best political interest for us to leave. And the Iraqi people will know the government has asked us to leave. The question of Maliki's independence is entirely beside the point. If the government doesn't want us there and the people don't want us there, then it's time for us to go.
