Charles Krauthammer – In Baker’s Blunder, A Chance For Bush – washingtonpost.com

 Isn’t this just so like the American cliche that the rest of the world sees…We don’t like the results of this messy thing called democracy so lets change the government that resulted. Isn’t Bush just repudiating his own policy by not working with the elected government he says he went to war to see in power? Oops, I’m sorry I forgot, this isn’t the captive government we took into Baghdad with us is it?

Now that these 10 establishment sages have labored mightily to produce a mouse, the president has one last chance to come forward with a new strategy.

He must do two things. First, as I’ve been agitating for, establish a new governing coalition in Baghdad that excludes Moqtada al-Sadr, a cancer that undermines the ability of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his government to work with us. It is encouraging that Bush has already begun such a maneuver by meeting with rival Shiite and Sunni parliamentary leaders. If we help produce a cross-sectarian government that would be an ally rather than a paralyzed semi-adversary of coalition forces, we should then undertake part two: “Double down” our military effort. This means a surge in American troops with a specific mission: to secure Baghdad and (with the support of the Baghdad government — a sine qua non) suppress Sadr’s Mahdi Army.

Source: Charles Krauthammer – In Baker’s Blunder, A Chance For Bush – washingtonpost.com